Solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur is the cradle of thought and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which society can ill do without.

Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.

Among the facts of the universe to be accounted for, it may be said, is Mind; and it is self evident that nothing can have produced Mind but Mind.

The habit of analysis has a tendency to wear away the feelings.

The beliefs which we have most warrant for have no safeguard to rest on but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded. If the challenge is not accepted, or is accepted and the attempt fails, we are far enough from certainty still; but we have done the best that the existing state of human reason admits of; we have neglected nothing that could give the truth a chance of reaching us.

When one's ideas are not challenged, one's ability to defend them weakens.

No slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is.