We fancy that our afflictions are sent us directly from above; sometimes we think it in piety and contrition, but oftener in moroseness and discontent.

There is no easy path leading out of life, and few are the easy ones that lie within it.

All schools of philosophy, and almost all authors, are rather to be frequented for exercise than for weight.

I would recommend a free commerce both of matter and mind. I would let men enter their own churches with the same freedom as their own houses; and I would do it without a homily or graciousness or favor, for tyranny itself is to me a word less odious than toleration.

O Music! how it grieves me that imprudence, intemperance, gluttony, should open their channels into thy sacred stream.

Cruelty, if we consider it as a crime, is the greatest of all; if we consider it as a madness, we are equally justifiable in applying to it the readiest and the surest means of oppression.

We cannot be contented because we are happy, and we cannot be happy because we are contented.