Sentiment is intellectualized emotion, — emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy. - James Russell Lowell

A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.

Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut tu du
Is jes' to show you're up to fightin', tu.

Long habit had accustomed the American people to the notion of a party in power, and of a President as its creature and organ, while the more vital fact, that the executive for the time being represents the abstract idea of government as a permanent principle superior to all party and all private interest, had gradually become unfamiliar.