An absolutely new idea is one of the rarest things known to man.

Most people know nothing about learning; many despise it. Dummies reject as too hard whatever is not dumb.

They have no lawyers among them, for they consider them as a sort of people whose profession it is to disguise matters.

If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes.

To love God, which was a thing far excelling all the cunning that is possible for us in this life to obtain.

What is deferred is not avoided.

. . . the state of things and the dispositions of men were then such, that a man could not well tell whom he might trust or whom he might fear.