The worst enemy of good government is not our ignorant foreign voter, but our educated domestic railroad president, our prominent business man, our leading lawyer.

Benevolence alone will not make a teacher, nor will learning alone do it. The gift of teaching is a peculiar talent, and implies a need and a craving in the teacher himself.

The world values the seer above all men, and has always done so. Nay, it values all men in proportion as they partake of the character of seers. You love them because you say, These things were not made, they were seen.

Learning is not easy, but hard; culture is severe. The steps to Parnassus are steep and terribly arduous.

The power of quotation is as dreadful a weapon as any which the human intellect can forge.

Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation.

I want to find someone on the earth so intelligent that he welcomes opinions which he condemns.