Many men are stored full of unused knowledge. Like loaded guns that are never fired off, or military magazines in times of peace, they are stuffed with useless ammunition.

No man rides so high and in such good company as the man that allies himself to a truth.

The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive grace and symmetry; and where is there a more kingly flower?

We know that the gifts which men have do not come from the schools. If a man is a plain, literal, factual man, you can make a great deal more of him in his own line by education than without education, just as you can make a great deal more of a potato if you cultivate it than if you do not; but no cultivation in this world will ever make an apple out of a potato.

Liberty is the soul's right to breathe and, when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.

Men must read for amusement as well as for knowledge.

The indolent mind is not empty, but full of vermin.