When all is said and done, the one sole condition that makes spiritual happiness and preserves it is the absence of doubt.

In our day we don't allow a hundred and thirty years to elapse between glimpses of a marvel. If somebody should discover a creek in the county next to the one that the North Pole is in, Europe and America would start fifteen costly expeditions thither; one to explore the creek, and the other fourteen to hunt for each other.

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.

The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing, it is the thing to watch over and care for and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous. . . .

An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war.

None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.

There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory