But a public oration is an escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag, and not a communication, not a speech, not a man.

This whole business of Trade gives me to pause and think, as it constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I am prone tocount myself relieved of any responsibility to behave well and nobly to that person who I pay with money, whereas if I had not that commodity, I should be put on my good behavior in all companies, and man would be a benefactor to man, as being himself his only certificate that he had a right to those aids and services which each asked of the other.

No matter how often defeated, you are born to victory.

Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go.

Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity.

Jesus and Shakespeare are fragments of the soul, and by love I conquer and incorporate them in my own conscious domain. His virtue,--is not that mine? His wit,--if it cannot be made mine, it is not wit.

Blame is safer than praise