“We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure.
“No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent.
“Every human being has a work to carry on within, duties to perform abroad, influence to exert, which are peculiarly his, and which no conscience but his own can teach
“Happily in this community we all are bred and born to work; and this honorable mark, set on us all, should bind together the various portions of the community
“Courage considered in itself or without reference to its causes, is no virtue, and deserves no esteem
“It is far more important to me to preserve an unblemished conscience than to compass any object however great
“The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves
“Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance
“Grandeur of character lies wholly in force of soul, that is, in the force of thought, moral principle, and love, and this may be found in the humblest condition of life
“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