The virtue of books is to be readable.

Who makes and keeps the Jew or the Negro base, who but you, who exclude them from the rights which others enjoy?

I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called history is.

All men in the abstract are just and good.

The escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are; and love of what is simple and beautiful; independence, and cheerful relation, these are the essentials.

Senators and presidents have climbed so high with pain enough, not because they think the place specially agreeable, but as an apology for real worth, and to vindicate their manhood in our eyes. This conspicuous chair is their compensation to themselves for being of a poor, cold, hard nature.

The true poem is the poet's mind.