“Amongst civilized nations revolts are rarely excited, except by such persons as have nothing to lose by them;”

“Human understanding more easily invents new things than new words.”

“It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.”

“Jefferson went still further, and he introduced a maxim into the policy of the Union, which affirms that "the Americans ought never to solicit any privileges from foreign nations, in order not to be obliged to grant similar privileges themselves.”

“The whole people contracts the habits and tastes of the magistrate.”

“Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but it hides his descendants, and separates his contemporaries from him; it throws him back forever upon himself alone, and threatens in the end to confine him entirely within the solitude of his own heart.”

“Laws are always unstable unless they are founded upon the manners of the nation; manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.”

“Thus the negro transmits the eternal mark of his ignominy to all his descendants; and although the law may abolish slavery, God alone can obliterate the traces of its existence.”

“While he loved liberty, he detested the crimes that had been committed in its name. Jon J. Ingalls”

“In other words, the government of the democracy is the only one under which the power which lays on taxes escapes the payment of them.”

“Although the vast country which we have been describing was inhabited by many indigenous tribes, it may justly be said at the time of its discovery by Europeans to have formed one great desert. The Indians occupied without possessing it.”

“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.”

“The passion for war is so intense that there is no undertaking so mad, or so injurious to the welfare of the State, that a man does not consider himself honored in defending it, at the risk of his life.”

“The Indians had only the two alternatives of war or civilization; in other words, they must either have destroyed the Europeans or become their equals.”

“am unacquainted with His designs, but I shall not cease to believe in them because I cannot fathom them, and I had rather mistrust my own capacity than His justice.”

“Theatre is the most democratic side of literature.”

“The happy and the powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.”

“to be a government of "liberty regulated by law," with such results in the development of strength, in population, wealth, and military and commercial power, as no age had ever witnessed.”

“The only way to neutralize the effect of public journals is to multiply them indefinitely.”

“The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal; but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or to wretchedness.”

“nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents.”

“He who has set his heart exclusively upon the pursuit of worldly welfare is always in a hurry, for he has but a limited time at his disposal to reach, to grasp, and to enjoy it.”

“The only nations which deny the utility of provincial liberties are those which have fewest of them; in other words, those who are unacquainted with the institution are the only persons who passed censure upon it.”

“As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?”

“Consequently, in the United States the law favors those classes which are most interested in evading it elsewhere.”

“The great privilege of the Americans does not simply consist in their being more enlightened than other nations, but in their being able to repair the faults they may commit.”

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

“It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.”

“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”

“You see, but you do not observe.”

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”

“You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.”

“Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.”

“The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.”

“Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.”

“My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.”

“A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.”

“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done.”

“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.”

“It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.”

“The game is afoot.”

“To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.”

“Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting.”

“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.”

“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”

“There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.”

“There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book.”