Faith reinvigorates the will, enriches the affections, and awakens a sense of creativeness. Active faith knows no fear, and it is a safeguard to me against cynicism and despair.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

In a word, literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book-friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. The things I have learned and the things I have been taught seem of ridiculously little importance compared with their "large loves and heavenly charities.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

Tyranny cannot defeat the power of ideas.

No nation is wise enough to rule another.