The People, though we think of a great entity when we use the word, means nothing more than so many millions of individual men.

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.

If you have enough room for your books, you don't have enough books.

Of all the differences between the Old World and the New, this is perhaps the most salient. Half the wars of Europe, half the internal troubles that have vexed European States... have arisen from theological differences or from the rival claims of Church and State. This whole vast chapter of debate and strife has remained virtually unopened in the United States. There is no Established Church. All religious bodies are equal before the law, and unrecognized by the law, except as voluntary associations of private citizens.

It is accepted as an axiom by all Americans that the civil power ought to be not only neutral and impartial as between different forms of faith, but ought to leave these matters entirely on one side, regarding them no more than it regards the artistic or literary pursuits of the citizens.

When you find that a book is poor ... waste no more time upon it.

Life is too short for reading inferior books.