A mercantile democracy may govern long and widely; a mercantile aristocracy cannot stand.

Prose on certain occasions can bear a great deal of poetry; on the other hand, poetry sinks and swoons under a moderate weight of prose.

We listen to those whom we know to be of the same opinion as ourselves, and we call them wise for being of it; but we avoid such as differ from us.

He who brings ridicule to bear against truth finds in his hand a blade without a hilt. The most sparkling and pointed flame of wit flickers and expires against the incombustible walls of her sanctuary.

The highest price we can pay for anything; is to ask it.

States, like men, have their growth, their manhood, their decrepitude, their decay.

Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend.