The duty of man is the same in respect to his own nature as in respect to the nature of all other things, namely not to follow it but to amend it.

The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

Unfortunately for the good sense of mankind, the fact of their fallibility is far from carrying the weight in their practical judgement, which is always allowed to it in theory; for while every one well knows himself to be fallible, few think it necessary to take any precautions against their own fallibility.

Men are men before they are lawyers, or physicians, or merchants, or manufacturers; and if you make them capable and sensible men, they will make themselves capable and sensible lawyers or physicians.