Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?

Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and others, spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves, are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation. She is not afraid to exhibit herself to them.

It is impossible to give a soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

We discover a new world every time we see the earth again after it has been covered for a season with snow.

What wisdom, what warning can prevail against gladness? There is no law so strong that a little gladness may not transgress.

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.