As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.

Honour is external conscience, and conscience is inward honour.

To become reconciled to a friend with whom you have broken, is a form of weakness; and you pay the penalty of it when he takes the first opportunity of doing precisely the very thing which brought about the breach.

Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.

We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack.

Just as the largest library, badly arranged, is not so useful as a very moderate one that is well arranged, so the greatest amount of knowledge, if not elaborated by our own thoughts, is worth much less than a far smaller volume that has been abundantly and repeatedly thought over.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.