Genius is the very eye of intellect and the wing of thought; it is always in advance of its time, and is the pioneer for the generation which it precedes.

It is a bird-flight of the soul, when the heart declares itself in song. The affections that clothe themselves with wings are passions that have been subdued to virtues.

No errors of opinion can possibly be dangerous in a country where opinion is left free to grapple with them.

The effect of character is always to command consideration. We sport and toy and laugh with men or women who have none, but we never confide in them.

No doubt solitude is wholesome, but so is abstinence after a surfeit. The true life of man is in society.

The apothegm is the most portable form of Truth.... It is thus that the proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly expended in the air.

I believe that economists put decimal points in their forecasts to show they have a sense of humor.