In talking with scholars, I observe that they lost on ruder companions those years of boyhood which alone could give imaginative literature a religious and infinite quality in their esteem.

Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.

I could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws, than with a sloven and unpresentable person. Moral qualities rule the world, but at shorter distances, the senses are despotic.

Nature is reckless of the individual. When she has points to carry, she carries them.

In the country, without any interference from the law, the agricultural life favors the permanence of families.

There is a third silent party to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty of the fulfillment of every contract, so that honest service cannot come to loss. If you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer.

There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.