To drive men from independence to live on alms, is itself great cruelty.

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body. On the due digestion of the former depend the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigor and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable companion in the commerce of human life, is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts.

Religion, to have any force upon men's understandings,--indeed, to exist at all,--must be supposed paramount to law, and independent for its substance upon any human institution, else it would be the absurdest thing in the world,--an acknowledged cheat.

A populace never rebels from passion for attack, but from impatience of suffering.

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.

Vice incapacitates a man from all public duty; it withers the powers of his under- standing, and makes his mind paralytic.

An entire life of solitude contradicts the purpose of our being, since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror.