Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort. - Alexis de Tocqueville

Original text : Il était aussi grand qu'un homme puisse l'être sans la vertu.

The practice which obtains amongst the Americans of fixing the standard of their judgment in themselves alone, leads them to other habits of mind. As they perceive that they succeed in resolving without assistance all the little difficulties which their practical life presents, they readily conclude that everything in the world may be explained, and that nothing in it transcends the limits of the understanding. Thus they fall to denying what they cannot comprehend; which leaves them but little faith for whatever is extraordinary, and an almost insurmountable distaste for whatever is supernatural.

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.