A mind does not receive truth as a chest receives jewels that are put into it, but as the stomach takes up food into the system. It is no longer food, but flesh, and is assimilated. The appetite and the power of digestion measure our right to knowledge. He has it who can use it. As soon as our accumulation overruns our invention or power to use, the evils of intellectual gluttony begin,— congestion of the brain, apoplexy and strangulation.

Ten percent of people can think, another ten percent of people think that they think, and eighty percent of people would rather die than be made to think.

Culture is one thing and varnish is another.

The maxim of courts is that manner is power.

God screens us evermore from premature ideas.

The power of a man increases steadily by continuance in one direction. He becomes acquainted with the resistances and with his own tools; increases his skill and strength and learns the favorable moments and favorable accidents.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.