The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts.

The chief evil of war is more evil. War is the concentration of all human crimes. Here is its distinguishing, accursed brand. Under its standard gather violence, malignity, rage, fraud, perfidy, rapacity, and lust. If it only slew man, it would do little. It turns man into a beast of prey.

Most joyful let the Poet be, it is through him that all men see.

Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no others are, and to do what no other can do.

Life has a higher end, than to be amused

I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.

Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of a new power.