If the Sunday had not been observed as a day of rest during the last three centuries, I have not the slightest doubt that we should have been at this moment a poorer people and less civilized.

Great minds do indeed react on the society which has made them what they are; but they only pay with interest what they have received.

Men naturally sympathize with the calamities of individuals; but they are inclined to look on a fallen party with contempt rather than with pity.

A dominant religion is never ascetic.

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.

The upper current of society presents no pertain criterion by which we can judge of the direction in which the under current flows.

The temple of silence and reconciliation.