All great natures delight in stability; all great men find eternity affirmed in the very promise of their faculties.

He needs no library, for he has not done thinking; no church, for he is himself a prophet; no statute book, for he hath the Lawgiver; no money, for he is value itself; no road, for he is at home where he is.

Mankind divides itself into two classes,--benefactors and malefactors. The second class is vast; the first a handful.

There is also something excellent in every audience,--the capacity of virtue. They are ready to be beatified.

The crime which bankrupts men and nations is that of turning aside from one's main purpose to serve a job here and there.

Commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred.

The greater speed and success that distinguish the planting of the human race in this country, over all other plantations in history, owe themselves mainly to the new subdivisions of the State into small corporations of land and power.