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.

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

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

Books are true levelers. They give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race.

No one should part with their individuality and become that of another.

Real greatness has nothing to do with a man’s sphere. It does not lie in the magnitude of his outward agency, in the extent of the effects which he produces. The greatest men may do comparatively little.

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