“Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good. 'Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm.”

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

“Do you think the porter and the cook have no anecdotes, no experiences, no wonders for you? The walls of their minds are scrawled all over with thoughts. They shall one day bring a lantern and read the inscriptions.”

“Tis the good reader that makes the good book.”

“The objection to conforming to usages that have become dead to you is, that it scatters your force. It loses your time and blurs the impression of your character. If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible-society, vote with a great party either for the government or against it, spread your table like base housekeepers, under all these screens I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are.And, of course, so much force is withdrawn from your proper life. But do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. A man must consider what a blindman's-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect, I anticipate your argument. I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church.”

“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.”

“We write from aspiration and antagonism, as well as from experience. We paint those qualities which we do not posses.”