Neither lemonade nor anything else can prevent the inroads of old age. At present, I am stoical under its advances, and hope I shall remain so. I have but one prayer at heart; and that is, to have my faculties so far preserved that I can be useful, in some way or other, to the last.

The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.

A reformer is one who sets forth cheerfully toward sure defeat.

Genius hath electric power which earth can never tame.

Childhood itself is scarcely more lovely than a cheerful, kindly, sunshiny old age.

We must not forget that all great revolutions and reformations would look mean and meagre if examined in detail as they occurred at the time.

Even if nothing worse than wasted mental effort could be laid to the charge of theology, that alone ought to be sufficient to banish it from the earth ... What a vast amount of labour and learning has been expended, as uselessly as emptying shallow puddles into sieves! How much intellect has been employed mousing after texts, to sustain preconceived doctrines!