If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.

Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.

Great ideas travel slowly, and for a time noiselessly, as the gods whose feet were shod with wool.

If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.

In the minds of most men, the kingdom of opinion is divided into three territories,--the territory of yes, the territory of no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of doubt.

Wherever a ship ploughs the sea, or a plough furrows the field; wherever a mine yields its treasure; wherever a ship or a railroad train carries freight to market; wherever the smoke of the furnace rises, or the clang of the loom resounds; even in the lonely garret where the seamstress plies her busy needle--there is industry.

The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.