Books gratify and excite our curiosity in innumerable ways.

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

Duty is that mode of action on the part of the individual which constitutes the best possible application of his capacity to the general benefit.

Obey; this may be right; but beware of reverence.... Government is nothing but regulated force; force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade; the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion.

The lessons of their early youth regulated the conduct of their riper years.

Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.

Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.