Study with desire is real activity; without desire it is but the semblance and mockery of activity.

My thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with what is to come or what has been. Of the present there is necessarily no image.

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

No maxim can be more pernicious than that which would teach us to consult the temper of the times, and to tell only so much as we imagine our contemporaries will be able to bear.

In a well-written book we are presented with the maturest reflections, or the happiest flights of a mind of uncommon excellence. It is impossible that we can be much accustomed to such companions without attaining some resemblance to them.

God himself has no right to be a tyrant.

Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions.