Old religious factions are volcanoes burned out; on the lava and ashes and squalid scoriae of old eruptions grow the peaceful olive, the cheering vine and the sustaining corn.

There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world.

My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron.

No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.

I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets.

The more accurately we search into the human mind, the stronger traces we everywhere find of his wisdom who made it.

The starry heaven, though it occurs so very frequently to our view, never fails to excite an idea of grandeur. This cannot be owing to the stars themselves, separately considered. The number is certainly the cause. The apparent disorder augments the grandeur, for the appearance of care is highly contrary to our ideas of magnificence. Besides, the stars lie in such apparent confusion, as makes it impossible on ordinary occasions to reckon them. This gives them the advantage of a sort of infinity.