I should say sincerity, a deep, great, genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all men in any way heroic.

Happy season of virtuous youth, when shame is still an impassable barrier, and the sacred air-cities of hope have not shrunk into the mean clay hamlets of reality; and man, by his nature, is yet infinite and free.

Roguery is thought by some to be cunning and laughable: it is neither; it is devilish.

The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows. The greatest of faults, I should say is to be conscious of none.

A man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species.

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