Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function.

The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic importance of their contents to the constant mind of man.

The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.

Must we always talk for victory, and never once for truth, for comfort, and joy?

Let us interrogate the great apparition, that shines so peacefully around us.

Classics which at home are drowsily read have a strange charm in a country inn, or in the transom of a merchant brig.

All things with which we deal preach to us. What is a farm but a mute gospel? The chaff and the wheat, weeds and plants, blight, rain, insects, sun,--it is a sacred emblem from the first furrow of spring to the last stack which the snow of winter overtakes in the fields.