All errors which a man is likely to commit against advice are far outweighed by the evil of allowing others to constrain him for his good.

The guesses which serve to give mental unity and wholeness to a chaos of scattered particulars, are accidents which rarely occur to any minds but those abounding in knowledge and disciplined in intellectual combinations.

The disease which inflicts bureaucracy and what they usually die from is routine.

Education makes a man a more intelligent shoemaker, if that be his occupation, but not by teaching him how to make shoes; it does so by the mental exercise it gives, and the habits it impresses.

The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.

Every opinion which embodies somewhat of the portion of truth which the common opinion omits, ought to be considered precious, with whatever amount of error and confusion that truth may be blended.

The moral influence of woman over man is almost always salutary.