Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage... Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings and emperors, exert an influence on mankind.

Why should we leave it to Harper & Brothers and Redding & Co. to select our reading?

Our least deed, like the young of the land crab, wends its way to the sea of cause and effect as soon as born, and makes a drop there to eternity.

Our hymn-books resound with a melodious cursing of God and enduring Him forever.

Why level downward to our dullest perception always, and praise that as common sense? The commonest sense is the sense of men asleep, which they express by snoring.

The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow,-one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness.

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

It is surprising how many great men and women a small house will contain.

The bad are frequently good enough to let you see how bad they are, but the good as frequently endeavor to get between you and themselves.