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

I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as an angel from Heaven.

Reading is the royal road to intellectual eminence...Truly good books are more than mines to those who can understand them. They are the breathings of the great souls of past times. Genius is not embalmed in them, but lives in them perpetually.

What a sublime doctrine it is, that goodness cherished now is eternal life already entered on!

Labor is discovered to be the grand conqueror, enriching and building up nations more surely than the proudest battles.

We must not waste life in devising means. It is better to plan less and do more.

A man in earnest finds means or, if he cannot find, creates them.