. . . is it to be understood that the principles of the Declaration of Independence bear no relation to half of the human race?

[On being deaf:] We must struggle for whatever may be had, without encroaching on the comfort of others.

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring.

A Queen, or a Prime Minister's secretary may be shot at in London, as we know; and probably there is no person eminent in literature or otherwise who has not been the object of some infirm brain or another. But in America the evil is sadly common.

Religion is a temper, not a pursuit.

As the astronomer rejoices in new knowledge which compels him to give up the dignity of our globe as the centre, the pride, and even the final cause of the universe, so do those who have escaped from the Christian mythology enjoy their release from the superstition which fails to make them happy, fails to make them good, fails to make them wise, and has become as great an obstacle in the way of progress as the prior mythologies which it took the place of two thousand years ago.

I want to be a free rover on the breezy common of the universe.