He that openly tells, his friends all that he thinks of them, must expect that they will secretly tell his enemies much that they do not think of him.

There is no cruelty so inexorable and unrelenting as that which proceeds from a bigoted and presumptuous supposition of doing service to God. The victim of the fanatical persecutor will find that the stronger the motives he can urge for mercy are, the weaker will be his chance for obtaining it, for the merit of his destruction will be supposed to rise in value in proportion as it is effected at the expense of every feeling both of justice and of humanity.

Words indeed are but the signs and counters of knowledge, and their currency should be strictly regulated by the capital which they represent.

The acquirements of science may be termed the armour of the mind; but that armour would be worse than useless, that cost us all we had, and left us nothing to defend.

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straight forward and simple integrity in another.

Purity lives and derives its life solely from the Spirit of God.

They that are loudest in their threats are the weakest in the execution of them. It is probable that he who is killed by lightning hears no noise; but the thunder-clap which follows, and which most alarms the ignorant, is the surest proof of their safety.