We Americans... bear the ark of liberties of the world.

We are all beggars, each in his own way.

We are all ignorant; just about different things.

We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.

We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we ever invented, which was human liberty.

We are strange beings, we seem to go free, but we go in chains - chains of training, custom, convention, association, environment - in a word, Circumstance, and against these bonds the strongest of us struggle in vain.

We can secure other people's approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that.

We can’t reach old age by another man’s road.

We consider that any man who can fiddle all through one of those Virginia Reels without losing his grip may be depended upon in any kind of musical emergency.

We despise no source that can pay us a pleasing attention.