With respect to duels, indeed, I have my own ideas. Few things in this so surprising world strike me with more surprise. Two little visual spectra of men, hovering with insecure enough cohesion in the midst of the unfathomable, and to dissolve therein, at any rate, very soon, make pause at the distance of twelve paces asunder; whirl around, and simultaneously by the cunningest mechanism, explode one another into dissolution; and, offhand, become air, and non-extant--the little spitfires!

Perfect ignorance is quiet, perfect knowledge is quiet; not so the transition from the former to the latter.

Stern accuracy in inquiring, bold imagination in describing, these are the cogs on which history soars or flutters and wobbles.

The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.

The three great elements of modern civilization, Gun powder, Printing, and the Protestant religion.

Nature is the time-vesture of God that reveals Him to the wise, and hides him from the foolish.

Experience takes dreadfully high school-wages, but he teaches like no other.