The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.

From the age of fifteen, dogma has been the fundamental principle of my religion: I know no other religion; I cannot enter into the idea of any other sort of religion; religion, as a mere sentiment, is to me a dream and a mockery.

Regarding Christianity: Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.

To discover and to teach are distinct functions; they are also distinct gifts, and are not commonly found united in the same person.

We must make up our minds to be ignorant of much, if we would know anything.

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.

God has created me to do him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission; I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I have a part in a great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.