It is not the quantity but the quality of knowledge which determines the mind's dignity.

Influence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.

The mind, in proportion as it is cut off from free communication with nature, with revelation, with God, with itself, loses its life, just as the body droops when debarred from the air and the cheering light from heaven.

Conscience, the sense of right, the power of perceiving moral distinctions, the power of discerning between justice and injustice, excellence and baseness, is the highest faculty given us by God, the whole foundation of our responsibility, and our sole capacity for religion. ...God, in giving us conscience, has implanted a principle within us which forbids us to prostrate ourselves before mere power, or to offer praise where we do not discover worth.

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

Whatever you may suffer, speak the truth. Be worthy of the entire confidence of your associates. Consider what is right as to what must be done. It is not necessary that you should keep your property, or even your life, but it is necessary that you should hold fast your integrity.