Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men or they are no better than dreams.

He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread

It is very certain that the strong British race which has now overrun much of this continent, must also overrun [Texas], and Mexico and Oregon also, and it will in the course of ages be of small import by what particular occasions and methods it was done.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

All history is the decline of war, though the slow decline. All that society has yet gained is mitigation; the doctrine of the right of war still remains.

Every man believes he has a greater possibility.

All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory of nature.