Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.

• To some extent I liken slavery to death.
• Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable.
• I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.
• Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.
• Frivolity is inborn, conceit acquired by education.
• The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.
• A man of courage is also full of faith.
• True nobility is exempt from fear.
• Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.
• Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.