All should be taught that the highest ambition is to be happy, and to add to the well-being of others; that place and power are not necessary to success; that the desire to acquire great wealth is a kind of insanity. They should be taught that it is a waste of energy, a waste of thought, a waste of life, to acquire what you do not need and what you do not really use for the benefit of yourself or others.

Years should not be devoted to the acquisition of dead languages or to the study of history which, for the most part, is a detailed account of things that never occurred. It is useless to fill the individual with dates of great battles, with the births and deaths of kings. They should be taught the philosophy of history, the growth of nations, of philosophies, theories, and, above all, of the sciences.

The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered.

Strange but true: those who have loved God most have loved men least.

If we should put god in the Constitution there would be no room left for man.

In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.

Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment.