The best that we can do for one another is to exchange our thoughts freely; and that, after all, is about all.

In every department of life--in its business and in its pleasures, in its beliefs and in its theories, in its material developments and in its spiritual connections--we thank God that we are not like our fathers.

If you think you can temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books, it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man to his ruin. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

The solitary side of our nature demands leisure for reflection upon subjects on which the dash and whirl of daily business, so long as its clouds rise thick about us, forbid the intellect to fasten itself.

Courage is, on all hands, considered as an essential of high character.

Mistakes are often the best teachers.

The secret of a person's nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.