Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet.

Men, I still think, ought to be weighed not counted.

I never knew a trader in philanthropy who was not wrong in his head or heart somewhere or other.

The necessity for external government to man is in an inverse ratio to the vigor of his self-government. Where the last is most complete, the first is least wanted. Hence, the more virtue the more liberty.

Motives by excess reverse their very nature and instead of exciting, stun and stupefy the mind.

For compassion a human heart suffices, but for full and adequate sympathy, with joy, an angel's only.

There is no such thing as a worthless book though there are some far worse than worthless; no book that is not worth preserving, if its existence may be tolerated; as there may be some men whom it may be proper to hang, but none should be suffered to starve.