Men are probably nearer the essential truth in their superstitions than in their science.

Life is so short that it is not wise to take roundabout ways, nor can we spend much time in waiting.... We have not got half-way to dawn yet.

A temple, you know, was anciently "an open place without a roof," whose walls served merely to shut out the world and direct the mind toward heaven; but a modern meeting-house shuts out the heavens, while it crowds the world into still closer quarters.

If labor mainly, or to any considerable degree, serves the purpose of a police, to keep men out of mischief, it indicates a rottenness at the foundation of our community.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

We are all of us more or less active physiognomists.

Undoubtedly, in the most brilliant successes, the first rank is always sacrificed.