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.

Narrative is linear, but action has breadth and depth as well as height and is solid.

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

I don't like to talk much with people who always agree with me. It is amusing to coquette with an echo for a little while, but one soon tires of it.

Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.

The essence of humor is sensibility; warm, tender fellow-feeling with all forms of existence.

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