Cut these words and they would bleed; they are vascular and alive.

An actually existing fly is more important than a possibly existing angel.

We legislate against forestalling and monopoly; we would have a common granary for the poor; but the selfishness which hoards thecorn for high prices, is the preventative of famine; and the law of self-preservation is surer policy than any legislation can be.

I see not any road of perfect peace which a man can walk but after the counsel of his own bosom.

Enthusiasm is the height of man; it is the passing from the human to the divine.

The vanishing, volatile froth of the present which any shadow will alter, any thought blow away, any event annihilate, is every moment converted into the adamantine.

The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.