More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the [biblical] texts that authorised them remain.

If you want me to give you a two-hour presentation, I am ready today. If you want only a five-minute speech, it will take me two weeks to prepare.

The newspaper that obstructs the law on a trivial pretext, for money's sake, is a dangerous enemy to the public weal. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.

I take my only exercise acting as a pallbearer at the funerals of my friends who exercise regularly.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are in the wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are in the right.

Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerve give to wisdom.