Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never voluntarily opened.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

As men get on in life, they acquire a love for sincerity, and somewhat less solicitude to be lulled or amused. In the progress ofthe character, there is an increasing faith in the moral sentiment, and a decreasing faith in propositions.

Defect in manners is usually the defect of fine perceptions. Elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.

We lie in the lap of immense intelligence.

Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think.

Our people are slow to learn the wisdom of sending character instead of talent to Congress. Again and again they have sent a man of great acuteness, a fine scholar, a fine forensic orator, and some master of the brawls has crunched him up in his hands like a bit of paper.