I believe,—That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

I find it so difficult to dispose of the few facts which to me are significant, that I hesitate to burden my attention with those which are insignificant.

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

This is the frost coming out of the ground; this is Spring. It precedes the green and flowery spring, as mythology precedes regular poetry.

No man ever followed his genius til it misled him.

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

We now no longer camp as for a night, but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven.