Eloquence, to produce her full effect, should start from the head of the orator, as Pallas from the brain of Jove, completely armed and equipped. Diffidence, therefore, which is so able a mentor to the writer, would prove a dangerous counsellor for the orator.

In politics, as in religion, it so happens, that we have less charity for those who believe the half of our creed, than for those that deny the whole of it; since if Servetus had been a Mohammedan, he would not have been burnt by Calvin.

Most importantly: Don't adjust your results to build up the ego of the chief strategist. Especially if the strategist is you.

The most zealous converters are always the most rancorous when they fail of producing conversion.

It is better to have wisdom without learning than learning without wisdom.

Folly disgusts us less by her ignorance than pedantry by her learning.

Atheism is a system which can communicate neither warmth nor illumination, except from those fagots which your mistaken zeal has lighted up for its destruction.