Natural amiableness is too often seen in company with sloth, with uselessness, with the vanity of fashionable life.

Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of a new power.

The best books for a man are not always those which the wise recommend, but often those which meet the peculiar wants, the natural thirst of his mind, and therefore awaken interest and rivet thought.

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.

It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours.

The cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could hardly be propagated.

Faith is love taking the form of aspiration.