Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

• To love our neighbor as ourselves is such a truth for regulating human society, that by that alone one might determine all the cases in social morality.
• I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
• Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.
• No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.
• Our incomes are like our shoes if too small, they gall and pinch us but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.
• The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom.
• The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men. It has God for its author salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter. It is all pure.
• Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.
• It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.
• All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.