A slavish bondage to parents cramps every faculty of the mind

In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.

The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on.

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then by my example, how dangerous is the pursuit of knowledge and how much happier is that man who believes his native town to be the world than he who aspires to be greater than his nature will allow.

Perhaps the seeds of false-refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and defections of their race, in a premature and unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society!

At boarding schools of every description, the relaxation of the junior boys is mischief; and of the senior, vice.

The endeavor to keep alive any hoary establishment beyond its natural date is often pernicious and always useless.