Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

Conversation is an evanescent relation,--no more.

It is in the stomach of plants that development begins, and ends in the circles of the universe. 'Tis a long scale from the gorilla to the gentleman,--from the gorilla to Plato, Newton, Shakespeare,--to the sanctities of religion, the refinements of legislation, the summit of science, art, and poetry. The beginnings are slow and infirm, but it is an always accelerated march.

There is ever a slight suspicion of the burlesque about earnest good men.

[Gratitude is] the cheerfulness of wisdom.

The man, who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight, has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world.