For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever compel the soul of man to believe or to disbelieve: it is his own indefeasible light, that judgment of his; he will reign and believe there by the grace of God alone!

A heavenly awe overshadowed and encompassed, as it still ought, and must, all earthly business whatsoever.

Nine-tenths of the miseries and vices of mankind proceed from idleness.

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

Habit and imitation--there is nothing more perennial in us than these two. They are the source of all working, and all apprenticeship, of all practice, and all learning, in this world.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.