Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.

God is another name for human intelligence raised above all error and imperfection, and extended to all possible truth.

[Peace] is the highest and most strenuous act of the soul, but an entirely harmonious act, in which all our powers and affections are blending in a beautiful proportion, and sustain and perfect one another. It is more than the silence after storms. It is as the concord of all melodious sounds ... an alliance of love with all beings, a sympathy with all that is pure and happy, a surrender of every separate will and interest, a participation of the spirit and life of the universe.... This is peace, and the true happiness of [humanity].

I laugh, for hope hath a happy place with me; If my boat sinks, 'tis to another sea.

The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.

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.

The hills are reared, the seas are scooped in vain If learning's altar vanish from the plain.