Far off, men swell, bully, and threaten; bring them hand to hand, and they are feeble folk.

Our globe discovers its bidden virtues, not only in heroes and arch-angels, but in gossips and nurses.

He is a good man who can receive a gift well.

It is true that the discerning intellect of the world is always much in advance of the creative, so that there are competent judges of the best book, and few writers of the best books.

An orator or author is never successful till he has learned to make his words smaller than his ideas.

No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong is what is against it.

Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none.