We must not in the course of public life expect immediate approbation and immediate grateful acknowledgment of our services. But let us persevere through abuse and even injury. The internal satisfaction of a good conscience is always present, and time will do us justice in the minds of the people, even those at present the most prejudiced against us.

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.

Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries. Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of the soul in order to encounter it. But error is endlessly diversified; it has no reality, but is the pure and simple creation of the mind that invents it. In this field the soul has room enough to expand herself, to display all her boundless faculties, and all her beautiful and interesting extravagancies and absurdities.

Those who laugh often never grow old.

Those who sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety are not deserving of either liberty or safety.

Laws without morals are in vain.

The things of this world take up too much of my time, of which indeed I have too little left, to undertake anything like a reformation in religion.