The hand that unnerved Belshazzar derived its most horrifying influence from the want of a body, and death itself is not formidable in what we do know of it, but in what we do not.

The science of mathematics performs more than it promises, but the science of metaphysics promises more than it performs.

Some reputed saints that have been canonized ought to have been cannonaded.

We ask advice but we mean approbation.

In death itself there can be nothing terrible, for the act of death annihilates sensation; but there are many roads to death, and some of them justly formidable, even to the bravest.

My lowest days as a Christian have been more fulfilling and rewarding than all the days of glory in the White House.

No company is preferable to bad. We are more apt to catch the vices of others than virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.