The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.

Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house.

All the past is here, present to be tried; let it approve itself if it can.

Concord's little arch does not span all our fate, nor is what transpires under it law for the universe.

I do not wish, it happens, to be associated with Massachusetts, either in holding slaves or in conquering Mexico. I am a little better than herself in these respects.