Dangerous principles impose upon our understanding, emasculate our spirits, and spoil our temper.

Atheism is the result of ignorance and pride; of strong sense and feeble reasons; of good eating and ill-living. It is the plague of society, the corrupter of manners, and the underminer of property.

We must not let go manifest truths because we cannot answer all questions about them.

Hope is a vigorous principle; it is furnished with light and heat to advise and execute; it sets the head and heart to work, and animates a man to do his utmost. And thus, by perpetually pushing and assurance, it puts a difficulty out of countenance, and makes a seeming impossibility give way.

A man by tumbling his thoughts, and forming them into expressions, gives them a new fermentation, which works them into a finer body.

Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.

Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age.