I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.

In time of peril, like the needle to the loadstone, obedience, irrespective of rank, generally flies to him who is best fitted to command.

Those peculiar social sensibilities nourished by our own peculiar political principles, while they enhance the true dignity of a prosperous American, do but minister to the added wretchedness of the unfortunate; first, by prohibiting their acceptance of what little random relief charity may offer; and, second, by furnishing them with the keenest appreciation of the smarting distinction between their ideal of universal equality and their grind-stone experience of the practical misery and infamy of poverty.

The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven. Ah! how cheerfully we consign ourselves to perdition!

The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale... from hell's heart I stab at thee.

If there be any thing a man might well pray against, that thing is the responsive gratification of some of the devoutest prayers of his youth.