"The letters [pre 1845] however have been a source of rare enjoyment for me, and has carried me back a score of years to the period of your heroic trials, when in poverty you struggled so nobly to care for and bring up properly our dear children during the absence which a like struggle imposed on me…. Honors cheaply won are lightly esteemed."

"Don't mention this as I don't want to get the reputation of being a stock speculator, and if it was known here that it was my stock that was sold it would have the effect to depress the market."

"Every body I see in Europe seems to regard with favor the plan & Policy Inaugurated by yourself & Prest. White and all predict a glorious future for the Cornell University. It has been a source of especial Pride & pleasure to me to witness the interest manifest by the men of learning everywhere I go in the "New University" (as they call it) to distinguish it from any one of the Old Established and to convey the idea of progress an improvement a new and better institution and better calculated to meet the wants of our growing county.

"You are aware no doubt of the immediate cause of my visit abroad. My Physicians insisted that the only way to give my little overworked Brain rest was to put the Atlantic Ocean between me and my office."

"If the question of w[h]ere girls should board was the only one we could master that, but when and to whom shall they…attend to other educational duties is the question. We have now 400 boys here, and our room so crowded that we are forced to all sorts of expedients to make room for them. We also have several hundred young men pressing for admission who we cannot yet receive for want of room. If your case is one that only involves educational facilities, you can secure what you wish at Vassar College, and leave us to experiment on the boys…. I hope to live to see a thousand young women being educated in this University, with as many or more of their brothers, and all working smoothly and in harmony for their best good, but I don't want the young women forced upon us before we are prepared to make a success of it."

"My thoughts & purposes were these, no more no less. I started out by will to leave $30,000 to the university my second thought was to bestow it during my life and my third conclusion was that the center building would give a more ship shape look to the Hill side & allow an earlier finishing up and for the difference between say $30,000 & $50,000 I would not allow the opportunity to pass."

"Brother D.B. reports his health improving a little. He says he talks of going to Louisiana. I advised him to stay where he was join the Presbyterian Church and become a deacon. If he only would not have so many visions. I think he would be much better off. Poor Dan."

"My instructions are to select only such men as will be likely to vote right when they become voters."

"Miss Mattie Curran There is a great reform required in the education and habits of females. Please study the subject and see what can be done for them. Respectfully yours Ezra Cornell"

"Come away from Ithaca to the seashore for a short time. It will do you all good…. My wire window shades and wire doors are in their places and I am glad to tell you that my wife says, now that they are up and do not bother her as she thought they would, "they are the nicest things she ever had in her house." We hoist all of our windows, open our doors, and then sit down and laugh at the flies and bugs as they butt their heads against the wire cloth, trying to get in."

"…we must take special pains to strengthen the Agricultural & Mechanical Departments. Other departments will be filled easily enough -- but these which by the Law of Congress are made leading departments must be kept constantly before the people."

"I want to go with you to see Greely to have a talk with him about the University. It is very evident to me that the sectarian plot against us is coming to a head very fast. Their paper addresses & sermons are venomous. One of them last week contained three distinct attacks on our unchristian character."

"Am a little nervous at having received no news from the University. I have to keep it out of my mind as much as possible or I should 'strike a bee line' for Ithaca."

"Mr. Cornell will permit one who has been teacher among the Freedmen in different states, to thus tax his valuable time with a note of thanks that he does not exclude colored persons from the benefits of his University. Seeing the universal horror with which such a suggestion is received in our schools at the south, and yet seeing that "Cornell" has become a subject of interest among the intelligent of these places far beyond my expectations, even, we can but regard this step in your institution as greater than a political victory -- and an important aid in re-construction, notwithstanding the fact that a few northern colleges have thus done. That such an institution as yours has taken this step in recognition of the brotherhood of man seems to be of special consequence just now…. It is with pleasure, that on returning to East Tennessee, where this Maryville College has struggled so hard, I am able to say that the beautiful University which graces my home has taken this step."

"I did not find the stone giant in Syracuse. He is still laying where he was found -- 13 miles out from Sy. Prest. White went out and saw him on Sunday and proposed to drive me out there yesterday but I decided that a cold ride of 26 miles would be more unpleasant to me than my visit would benefit the giant -- so I was content to hear White tell about him. They took in $1,500 Sunday as fees from vistors who flocked there by thousands to see him."

"…allow me in the name of the Parliament to express their gratitude and appreciation of your kindly endeavors to furthur the advancement of all worthy efforts in the cause of progress and increased usefulness everywhere, as well as for your interest in the specific work which engages the attention of Miss Manedel."

"I have just completed packing and marking a large case of specimens the results thus far of my collecting in this place, at the Islands of Flamenco and at Taboga. At this latter place we have spent two weeks, dredging and collecting on the beach. Independent of shells I have had the good fortune to have presented me by I.B. Akin Esqr. Commercial Agent of the English Line of West Coast Steamers, some 15 or 16 specimens of pottery collected by him at considerable expense from the graves of the Incas of Peru. Colo. Jewett in his Ethnological enthusiasm values them at thousands of dollars. Such as they are, however they make not an unimportant commencement in this department and are for the University."

"It seems to me that Cascadilla is the place for the entertainment on Founders day…. If agreeable to you I would like in the morning to address the students on University life in general, reviewing the past term & making suggestions as to the future."

"The University will certainly triumph gloriously but it will have some severe fighting before the victory is won. Goldwin Smith's lecture published in the Atlantic is about as comprehensive and important a paper as I have ever seen. If school girls had not degraded the word so much I shuld say it was magnificent…"

"Last eve when I reached Albany I found the W. Union operators are on a strike. This will make it necessary for me to go from here to NY…"

"As you and Mary disapprove my going to Albany, and as A.B. disapproves my going to N.Y to return with you, I enclose you my pass, and remain at home awaiting orders."

"My excursion has made the University favorably known throughout the Central American States and in good time will I trust bear fruit for the advancement of it's interests."

"That the Secretary be instructed to inform the Executive Committee that in the opinion of this Faculty it is highly important that rooms be immediately provided and suitably furnished for the accomodation of sick students."

"There are comparatively few people here yet, the heat of summer not having been intence enough to drive the denizens of the cities and the fools from good country homes to this retreat of fashion, folly, and flirtation…. Hotels are thick and large and very many private families take boarders during 'the Season'…. I think we must utilize the 'Cascadilla Place' in the same way. Fix up the grounds and fit up and furnish the house, and open it for a Summer Hotel from July 1st to Sept. 15th. Fill it with 200 guests for that time at $3. per day would amount to $47,000 half of which would be profit. If only $10,000 per vacation could be realized from its use it would be a great help. This trip to Saratoga has opened up this subject to my mind with more fource than it has ever before been presented."

"Since you were here they have got two fine bridges. One over the Chippewa where the Ferry was and the other over the Eau Claire. The town has grown decidedly in the time and the R.R. will add much more to it. This addition of R.R. facilities will add to the value of our lands and increase the sales."

"The immediate completion of the Sibley Building is of immense importance to us. We are at present utterly crippled in our department of Mechanic Arts for want of just such accomodations as the Sibley Building will give. I insist that this building now is worth two or three buildings later."

"Keep close watch over our beloved University. Take no more risks than are absolutely necessary. Watch the monthly statements. Insist on knowing just where we are and what we can rely upon. Pardon this reiteration -- it is because I honor you and love our great enterprise. Good bye. God bless you."

"Finch tells me that you have the draft of a bill looking to the ratification of your contract with this State by Congress. I wish you would hold on a little about that until we can confer upon it.

"Sage is probably to be here tomorrow. He aches to begin his College, evidently."

"It is 30 years this month since I purchased the poles for the line between Washington & Baltimore upon which the first wires were suspended, very few had faith in the success of the enterprise at that time, Prof. Morse('s) failure to make the wires work through leaden pipes beneath the surface of the earth had shaken his faith, but the wires were on the poles by 1st May 1844, and the line got to work with remarkable success considering the clumsy instruments we had to work with. Great changes have taken place since that time, but few of us who contributed to the success of the Telegraph remain to witness the fact that it has become the most important agency in the affairs of mankind - and with those few I desire a reunion."

"The suggestion for putting the wires on poles came to Prof. Morse and myself about the same time from reading the reports in an English work of the necessity Prof. Wheatstone found for putting his wires on poles after a failure in pipes similar to that of Prof. Morse."