“He that will only believe what he can fully comprehend must either have a very long head, or a very short creed.”

“He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body. He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinizing the heart of others, he neglects not his own.”

“If Satan ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he has; they serve him better than any others, and receive no wages.”

“Liberty will not descend to a people. A people must raisethemselves to liberty. It is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.”

“Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.”

“Wealth... is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much but wants more. ”

“Men spend their lives in anticipations,—in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other—it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.”