The secret of a person's nature lies in their religion and what they really believes about the world and their place in it.

Carelessness is inexcusable, and merits the inevitable sequence.

Science rests on reason and experiment, and can meet an opponent with calmness; [but] a creed is always sensitive.

Men think to mend their condition by a change of circumstances. They might as well hope to escape from their shadows.

History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.

What is called virtue in the common sense of the word has nothing to do with this or that man's prosperity, or even happiness.

If you think you can temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books, it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man to his ruin. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.