I am a living member of the great family of all souls; and I cannot improve or suffer myself, without diffusing good or evil around me through an ever-enlarging sphere. I belong to this family. I am bound to it by vital bonds.

God be thanked for books; they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.

The world is to be carried forward by truth, which at first offends, which wins its way by degrees, which the many hate and would rejoice to crush.

The miracles of Christ were studiously performed in the most unostentatious way. He seemed anxious to veil His majesty under the love with which they were wrought.

No punishment is so terrible as prosperous guilt.

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

Knowledge is essential to freedom.