Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement.

Even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds

Next to selfishness the principal cause which makes life unsatisfactory is want of mental cultivation.

The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.

The perpetual obstacle to human advancement is custom.

There is a tolerably general agreement about what a university is not. It is not a place of professional education.

There is always need of persons not only to discover new truths, and point out when what were once truths are true no longer, but also to commence new practices, and set the example of more enlightened conduct, and better taste and sense in human life.