He [Charles II] was utterly without ambition. He detested business, and would sooner have abdicated his crown than have undergone the trouble of really directing the administration.

The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence.

But the time will come when New England will be as thickly peopled as old England. Wages will be as low, and will fluctuate as much with you as with us. You will have your Manchesters and Birminghams; and, in those Manchesters and Birminghams, hundreds of thousands of artisans will assuredly be sometimes out of work. Then your institutions will be fairly brought to the test.

I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both.

Highest among those who have exhibited human nature by means of dialogue stands Shakespeare. His variety is like the variety of nature,--endless diversity, scarcely any monstrosity.

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal!

I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.