We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents. A person who has for untold centuries maintained the imposing position of spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race, and political head of the whole of it, must be granted the possession of executive abilities of the loftiest order.
Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark:‹"I wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars."
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear‹not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea!‹incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.
What, then, is the true Gospel of consistency? Change. Who is the really consistent man? The man who changes. Since change is the law of his being, he cannot be consistent if he stick in a rut.
Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul in this world‹and never will.
It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.
It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.
The greatest danger of bombs is in the explosion of stupidity that they provoke.
