It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

What would constitute useful history? That which should teach us our duties and our rights, without appearing to teach them.

Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.

I am a little deaf, a little blind, a little important and on top of this are two or three abominable infirmities, but nothing destroys my hope.

The right of commanding is no longer an advantage transmitted by nature; like an inheritance, it is the fruit of labors, the price of courage.

It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God?

Martin in particular concluded that man was born to live either in the convulsions of misery, or in the lethargy of boredom.