In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.

It is important to strengthen the State governments; and as this cannot be done by any change in the Federal Constitution (for the preservation of that is all we need contend for), it must be done by the States themselves, erecting such barriers at the constitutional line as cannot be surmounted either by themselves or by the General Government. The only barrier in their power is a wise government. A weak one will lose ground in every contest.

We see the wisdom of Solon's remark, that no more good must be attempted than the nation can bear.

To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of the Christian church this heresy of immaterialism, this masked atheism, crept in, I do not know. But heresy it certainly is.

Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.

The excellence of every government is its adaptation to the state of those to be governed by it.

We should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them in Music, Chess, or the merriments of our family companions.