Is duty a mere sport, or an employ! Life an entrusted talent or a toy!

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. For what is enthusiasm but the oblivion and swallowing-up of self in an object dearer than self?

The first man of science was he who looked into a thing, not to learn whether it furnished him with food, or shelter, or weapons, or tools, armaments, or playwiths but who sought to know it for the gratification of knowing.

I know the Bible is inspired because it finds me at greater depths of my being than any other book.

The three great ends which a statesman ought to propose to himself in the government of a nation are, — 1. Security to possessors; 2. Facility to acquirers; and 3. Hope to all.

Tranquillity! thou better name Than all the family of Fame.

Our quaint metaphysical opinions, in an hour of anguish, are like playthings by the bedside of a child deathly sick.