The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.

If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.

Neither the inveterateness of the mischief, nor the prevalency of the fashion, shall be any excuse for those who will not take care about the meaning of their own words, and will not suffer the insignificancy of their expressions to be inquired into.

Children (nay, and men too) do most by example.

Vague and mysterious forms of speech, and abuse of language, have so long passed for mysteries of science; and hard or misapplied words with little or no meaning have, by prescription, such a right to be mistaken for deep learning and height of speculation, that it will not be easy to persuade either those who speak or those who hear them, that they are but the covers of ignorance and hindrance of true knowledge.

Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning.

In the beginning, all the world was America.