All human affairs follow nature's great analogue, the growth of vegetation. There are three periods of growth in every plant. The first, and slowest, is the invisible growth by the root; the second and much accelerated is the visible growth by the stem; but when root and stem have gathered their forces, there comes the third period, in which the plant quickly flashes into blossom and rushes into fruit.

The commerce of the world is conducted by the strong, and usually it operates against the weak.

Cant is the twin sister of hypocrisy.

Repentance is another name for aspiration.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

I would rather speak the truth to ten men than blandishments and lying to a million. Try it, ye who think there is nothing in it! Try what it is to speak with God behind you, to speak so as to be only the arrow in the bow which the Almighty draws.

Nowhere on the globe do men live so well as in America, or grumble so much.