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

The ideal college is Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other.

History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy.

In the long, fierce struggle for freedom of opinion, the press, like the Church, counted its martyrs by thousands.

I admitted, that the world had existed millions of years. I am astonished at the ignorance of the masses on these subjects. Hugh Miller has it right when he says that 'the battle of evidences must now be fought on the field of the natural sciences.'

In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices ... Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and powers of the National Government.

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