It is a custom of our justice to condemn some as a warning to others.
To condemn them because they have done wrong would be stupidity, as Plato says. For what is done cannot be undone. But they are condemned that they may not go wrong again in the same way, or that others may avoid following their example.
We do not correct the man we hang; we correct others through him. I do the same....
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I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.
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But when all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without losing thereby. His self-accusations are always believed; his slef-praise disbelieved.
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An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say Gentlemen to the person with whom he is conversing.
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With thee conversing I forget all time.
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