Reason can no more influence the will, and operate as a motive, than the eyes which show a man his road can enable him to move from place to place, or that a ship provided with a compass can sail without a wind.

Men first make up their minds (and the smaller the mind the sooner made up), and then seek for the reasons; and if they chance to stumble upon a good reason, of course they do not reject it. But though they are right, they are only right by chance.

The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction.

Eloquence is relative. One can no more pronounce on the eloquence of any composition than the wholesomeness of a medicine, without knowing for whom it is intended.

Unless people can be kept in the dark, it is best for those who love the truth to give them the full light.

Some persons follow the dictates of their conscience only in the same sense in which a coachman may be said to follow the horses he is driving.

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