Man, considered not merely as an organized being, but as a rational agent and a member of society, is perhaps the most wonderfully contrived, and to us the most interesting specimen of Divine wisdom that we have any knowledge of.

Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.

It is an awful, an appalling thought, that we may be, this moment and every moment, in the presence of malignant spirits.

He who is not aware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge.

One way in which fools succeed where wise men fail is that through ignorance of the danger they sometimes go coolly about a hazardous business.

It is one thing to wish to have truth on our side, and another to wish sincerely to be on the side of truth.

The attendant on William Rufus, who discharged at a deer an arrow, which glanced against a tree and killed the king, was no murderer, because he had no such design. And, on the other hand, a man who should lie in wait to assassinate another, and pull the trigger of a gun with that intent, would be morally a murderer, not the less though the gun should chance to miss fire.