It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately.

It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate.

[All religious sects] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight; and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies in which they live.

If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this world it is to your country [Italy] its music. This is the favorite passion of my soul, and fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism.

A room without books is like a life without meaning.

Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.

This formidable censor of the public functionaries [the press], by arraigning them at the tribunal of public opinion, produces reform peaceably, which must otherwise be done by revolution. It is also the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man and improving him as a rational, moral, and social being.