Human character evermore publishes itself. The most fugitive deed and word, the intimated purpose, express character.

We are amphibious creatures, weaponed for two elements, having two sets of faculties, the particular and the catholic.

Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action. What they have done commits and enforces them to do the same again. The first act, which was to be an experiment, becomes a sacrament.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence.

There are many faculties in man, each of which takes its turn of activity, and that faculty which is paramount in any period and exerts itself through the strongest nation, determines the civility of that age: and each age thinks its own the perfection of reason.

Let a man attain the highest and broadest culture that any American has possessed, then let him die by sea-storm, railroad collision, or other accident, and all America will acquiesce that the best thing has happened to him; that, after the education has gone far, such is the expensiveness of America, that the best use to put a fine person to is to drown him to save his board.