The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

Bald as the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur.

All knowledge is interesting to a wise man, and the knowledge of nature is interesting to all men.

And we forget because we must and not because we will.

History - a vast Mississippi of falsehoods

The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light.... He who works for sweetness and light united, works to make reason and the will of God prevail.

Truth illuminates and gives joy; and it is by the bond of joy, not of pleasure, that men's spirits are indissolubly held.