To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.

Those who exert the first influence upon the mind have the greatest power.

Republics, one after another . . . have perished from a want of intelligence and virtue in the masses of the people. . . .

We do ourselves the most good doing something for others.

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.

Let us labor for that larger comprehension of truth, and that more thorough repudiation of error, which shall make the history of mankind a series of ascending developments.

A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them.