He that in the ordinary affairs of life would admit of nothing but direct plain demonstration would be sure of nothing in this world but of perishing quickly.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

Earthly minds, like mud walls, resist the strongest batteries; and though, perhaps, sometimes the force of a clear argument may make some impression, yet they nevertheless stand firm, keep out the enemy, truth, that would captivate or disturbe them.

To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.

That which parents should take care of... is to distinguish between the wants of fancy, and those of nature.

For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men's opinions? The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.

In the discharge of thy place set before thee the best examples; for imitation is a globe of precepts.