“There is tonic in the things that men do not love to hear. Free speech is to a great people what the winds are to oceans and where free speech is stopped miasma is bred, and death comes fast.”

No coffee can be good in the mouth that does not first send a sweet offering of odor to the nostrils.

The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.

Do not give, as many rich men do, like a hen that lays her eggs and then cackles.

The dog is the god of frolic.

It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible. Do not then be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause.

Whatever is almost true is quite false, and among the most dangerous of errors, because being so near truth, it is more likely to lead astray.

When a man says that he is perfect already, there is only one of two places for him, and that is heaven or the lunatic asylum.

Love is the river of life in this world.

It is for men to choose whether they will govern themselves or be governed.

Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.

Pushing any truth out very far, you are met by a counter-truth.

Adversity, if for no other reason, is of benefit, since it is sure to bring a season of sober reflection. People see clearer at such times. Storms purify the atmosphere.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad where they touch the ground, but grow narrow as they reach the sky.

Life would be a perpetual flea hunt if a man were obliged to run down all the innuendoes, inveracities, and insinuations and misrepresentations which are uttered against him.

Blessed are they who know how to shine on one’s gloom with their cheer.