"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from December to March, inclusive, she is to be found in the bare ruin of her winter, as truly beautiful as in the full bloom of sum…"

"I am not a great admirer of public dinners, as a general rule."

"I have always been of the opinion that the best thing a man can do is to keep his own counsel."

"There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights."

"The Radicals are a set of men who would pull down everything, and build up nothing."