Government exists to defend the weak and the poor and the injured party; the rich and the strong can better take care of themselves.

Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect. A man does not see, that, as he eats, so he thinks: as he deals, so he is, and so he appears; he does not see that his son is the son of his thoughts and of his actions; that fortunes are not exceptions but fruits; that relation and connection are not somewhere and sometimes, but everywhere and always; no miscellany, no exemption, no anomaly,--but method, and an even web; and what comes out, that was put in.

Wouldst thou shut up the avenues of ill, Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.

Manners aim to facilitate life, to get rid of impediments, and bring the man pure to energize. They aid our dealing and conversation, as a railway aids travelling, by getting rid of all avoidable obstructions of the road, and leaving nothing to be conquered but pure space.

We do what we must, and call it by the best names we can, and would fain have the praise of having intended the result which ensues.

A man is a god in ruins.

Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity.