Every ship is a romantic object, except that we sail in.

Human society is made up of partialities. Each citizen has an interest and a view of his own, which, if followed out to the extreme, would leave no room for any other citizen.

The vulgar call good fortune that which really is produced by the calculations of genius.

There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact.

Higher than the question of our duration is the question of our deserving. Immortality will come to such as are fit for it, and he would be a great soul in future must be a great soul now.

An answer in words is delusive; it is really no answer to the questions you ask.

Truth gathers itself spotless and unhurt after all our surrenders and concealments and partisanship; never hurt by the treachery or ruin of its best defenders, whether Luther, or William Penn, or St. Paul.