As we become civilized we are governed less by persons and more by principles. . . . The best of all leaders is the man who teaches people to lead themselves.

As long as a man lives he should study. Death alone has the right to dismiss the school.

The way to be happy is to make others so.

Shakespeare has done far more for the world than the Bible.

I cannot see why we should expect an infinite God to do better in another world than he does in this.

All religious systems enslave the mind. Certain things are demanded-certain things must be believed-certain things must be done-and the man who becomes the subject or servant of this superstition must give up all idea of indivuality or hope of intellectual growth or progress.

It is with men as with other things. The mullein needs only a year, but the oak a century, and the greatest men are those who have continued to grow as long as they have lived.