To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.

He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool; since the most absurd doctrines are not without such evidence as martyrdom can produce. A martyr, therefore, by the mere act of suffering, can prove nothing but his own faith.

Mystery magnifies danger, as a fog the sun, the hand that warned Belshazzar derived its horrifying effect from the want of a body.

Hurry is the mark of a weak mind, dispatch of a strong one.

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.

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

There are truths which some men despise because they have not examined, and which they will not examine because they despise. There is one signal instance on record where this kind of prejudice was overcome by a miracle; but the age of miracles is past, while that of prejudice remains.