Society,--the only field where the sexes have ever met on terms of equality, the arena where character is formed and studied, the cradle and the realm of public opinion, the crucible of ideas, the world's university, at once a school and a theater, the spur and the crown of ambition, the tribunal which unmasks pretension and stamps real merit, the power that gives government leave to be, and outruns the lazy Church in fixing the moral sense of the eye.

Do not take the yardstick of your ignorance to measure what the ancients knew, and call everything which you do not know lies. Do not call things untrue because they are marvelous, but give them a fair consideration.

Politics is but the common pulse-beat, of which revolution is the fever-spasm.

The slowest of us cannot but admit that the world moves.

To be as good as our fathers we must be better, imitation is not discipleship.

Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.

Republics exist only on the tenure of being constantly agitated.... There is no republican road to safety but in constant distrust.