If the crowns of all the kingdoms of the empire were laid down at my feet in exchange for my books and my love of reading I would spurn them all.

How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak.

To pray is to desire; but it is to desire what God would have us desire.

When kings interfere in matters of religion, they enslave instead of protecting it.

God never ceases to speak to us, but the noise of the world without and the tumult of our passions within bewilder us and prevent us from listening to him

The past but lives in written words: a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts, and kept the pale unbodied shades to warn us from fleshless lips.

We are not to choose the manner in which our blessings shall be bestowed.