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.

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

Ambition is frequently the only refuge which life has left to the denied or mortified affections. We chide at the grasping eye, the daring wing, the soul that seems to thirst for sovereignty only, and know not that the flight of this ambitious bird has been from a bosom or home that is filled with ashes.

Solitude bears the same relation to the mind that sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary opportunities for repose and recovery.

Our possessions are wholly in our performances. He owns nothing to whom the world owes nothing.

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

Most men remember obligations, but not often to be grateful; the proud are made sour by the remembrance and the vain silent.