It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil.

It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater license to this formidable engine, in order to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.

They who have reasoned ignorantly, or who have aimed at effecting their personal ends by flattering the popular feeling, have boldly affirmed that 'one man is as good as another'; a maxim that is true in neither nature, revealed morals, nor political theory.

It is the fate of all things to ripen, and then to decay.

No civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.

The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity, since the tastes, knowledge, and principles of the majority form the tribunal of appeal.

The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms.