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.

A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.

A man of clear ideas errs grievously if he imagines that whatever is seen confusedly does not exist; it belongs to him, when he meets with such a thing, to dispel the midst, and fix the outlines of the vague form which is looming through it.

... the besetting danger is not so much of embracing falsehood for truth, as of mistaking a part of the truth for the whole.

Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.

In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service.