The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses.

In this age, the man who dares to think for himself and to act independently does a service to his race.

The bad workmen who form the majority of the operatives in many branches of industry are decidedly of opinion that bad workmen ought to receive the same wages as good.

It's hardly possible to overstate the value, in the present state of human improvement, of placing human beings in contact with other persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. Such communication has always been... one of the primary sources of progress.

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.

I know tolerably well what Ireland was, but have a very imperfect idea of what Ireland is.

In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.