No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation.

We live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another.

If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.

If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.

There are secret articles in our treaties with the gods, of more importance than all the rest, which the historian can never know.

Love must be as much a light as it is a flame.