Every state begins in compulsion; but the habits of obedience become the content of conscience, and soon every citizen thrills with loyalty to the flag. The citizen is right; for however the state begins, it soon becomes an indispensable prop to order.

Man is an emotional animal, occasionally rational; and through his feelings he can be deceived to his heart's content.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

The South creates the civilizations, the North conquers them, ruins them, borrows from them, spreads them: this is one summary of history.

Time sanctifies everything; even the most arrant theft in the hands of the robber's grandchildren becomes sacred and inviolable property.

Knowledge that does not generate achievement is a pale and bloodless thing, unworthy of mankind.

by and large the poor have the same impulses as the rich, with only less opportunity or skill to implement them