A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life

The common schools are the stomachs of the country in which all people that come to us are assimilated within a generation. When a lion eats an ox, the lion does not become an ox but the ox becomes a lion. So the immigrants of all races …

Humor is...nearer right than any emotion we have. Humor is the atmosphere in which grace most flourishes.

Where is human nature so weak as in a book store?

Any law that takes hold of a man’s daily life cannot prevail in a community, unless the vast majority of the community are actively in favor of it. The laws that are the most operative are the laws which protect life.

Ye that mourn, let gladness mingle with your tears. It was your son, but now he is the nation's.

[N]o emotion, any more than a wave, can long retain its own individual form.