Why will you be always sallying out to break lances with other people's wind-mills, when your own is not capable of grinding corn for the horse you ride?

No genuine observer can decide otherwise than that the homes of a nation are the bulwarks of personal and national safety and thrift.

Nature is the master of talents; genius is the master of nature.

A man who feels that his religion is a slavery has not begun to comprehend the real nature of religion.

I account the office of benefactor, or almoner, to which God appoints all those whom he has favored with wealth, one of the most honorable and delightful in the world. He never institutes a channel for the passage of His bounties that those bounties do not enrich and beautify.

Cost is the father and compensation the mother of progress.

Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power.