A soldier is a man whose business it is to kill those who never offended him, and who are the innocent martyrs of other men's iniquities. Whatever may become of the abstract question of the justifiableness of war, it seems impossible that the soldier should not be a depraved and unnatural thing. |
Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind. |
As the true object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various reading should lead him into new trains of thinking. . . . |
Books have been handed down from generation to generation, as the true teachers of piety and the love of God, that represent him as so merciless and tyrannical a despot, that, if they were considered otherwise than through the medium of prejudice, they could inspire nothing but hatred. It seems that the impression we derive from a book, depends much less on its real contents, than upon the temper of mind and preparation with which we read it. |
But the watchful care of the parent is endless. The youth is never free from the danger of grating interference. |
Cough, snow. |
Everything understood by the term co-operation is in some sense an evil. |
For there is such a thing as a broken spirit. |
God himself has no right to be a tyrant. |
Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands, and perpetuate its institutions. |
He has no right to his life when his duty calls him to resign it. Other men are bound... to deprive him of life or liberty, if that should appear in any case to be indispensably necessary to prevent a greater evil. |
He that loves reading has everything within his reach. |
How can any one have genuine happiness, unless in proportion as he looks round, and, "behold, every thing is very good?" |
I know many men who are misanthropes, and profess to look down with disdain on their species. My creed is of an opposite character. All that we observe that is best and most excellent in the intellectual world, is man: and it is easy to perceive in many cases, that the believer in mysteries does little more, than dress up his deity in the choicest of human attributes and qualifications. I have lived among, and I feel an ardent interest in and love for, my brethren of mankind. This sentiment, which I regard with complacency in my own breast, I would gladly cherish in others. |
If a thing be really good, it can be shown to be such. |