I hate the prostitution of the name of friendship to signify modish and worldly alliances.

First be a good animal.

A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster as you turn it in your hand, until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors.

But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace withoutgrandeur, and itself not new but derivative; a vase of fair outline, but empty,--which whoso sees, may fill with what wit and character is in him, but which does not, like the charged cloud, overflow with terrible beauty, and emit lightnings on all beholders.

The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no constable to keep them.

Knowledge is when you learn something new every day. Wisdom is when you let something go every day.

No man can help another without helping himself.