Politeness has been well defined as benevolence in small things.

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

What society wants is a new motive, not a new cant.

We do not think it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison; let the vender prove it to be sanative.

No particular man is necessary to the state. We may depend on it that, if we provide the country with popular institutions, those institutions will provide it with great men.

It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern.