I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man; but I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured.

[I]t would be unjust to our people and dangerous to our institutions to apply any portion of revenues of the nation or of the States to the support of sectarian schools.

It is not right or manly to lie even about Satan.

Honesty is the best policy, says the familiar axiom; but people who are honest on that principle defraud no one but themselves.

Right reason is stronger than force.

The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated by law.

Commerce links all mankind in one common brotherhood of mutual dependence and interests.