If you have a nation of men who have risen to that height of moral cultivation that they will not declare war or carry arms, for they have not so much madness left in their brains, you have a nation of lovers, of benefactors, of true, great, and able men.
Power educates the potentate.
There are men who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race.
The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness.
The philosophy of waiting is sustained by all the oracles of the universe.
The astonishment of life is the absence of any appearances of reconciliation between the theory and the practice of life.
The best of life is conversation, and the greatest success is confidence, or perfect understanding between sincere people.
The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue.
Among provocative, the next best thing to good preaching is bad preaching.
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.
Women see better than men. Men see lazily, if they do not expect to act. Women see quite without any wish to act.
He, who loves the bristle of bayonets, only sees in their glitter what beforehand he feels in his hand.
Wise men are not wise at all times.
Crime and punishment grow out of one stem.
The world is plentiful with honey, but only the humble bee can collect it.
There is a capacity of virtue in us, and there is a capacity of vice to make your blood creep.
Thought makes everything fit for use.
Thought is the property of him who can entertain it, and of him who can adequately place it.
Begin and proceed on a settled conviction that but little is permitted to any man to do or to know, and if he complies with the first grand laws, he shall do well.
God has delegated himself to a million deputies.