Perfectibility is one of the most unequivocal characteristics of the human species.

He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes, and all of admirable flavour.

We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think well of our own capacity.

The proper method for hastening the decay of error, is not, by brute force, or by regulation which is one of the classes of force, to endeavour to reduce men to intellectual uniformity; but on the contrary by teaching every man to think for himself.

The great model of the affection of love in human beings is the sentiment which subsists between parents and children.

Learning is the ally, not the adversary of genius... he who reads in a proper spirit, can scarcely read too much.

If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.