You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else.

When a man truly commits, the universe will conspire to assure his success.

There are two classes of authors: the one write the history of their times, the other their biography.

For what are the classics but the noblest thoughts of man? They are the only oracles which are not decayed, and there are such answers to the most modern inquiry in them as Delphi and Dodona never gave. We might as well omit to study Nature because she is old.

The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles.

All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.