If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak. |
In cases where every thing is understood, and measured, and reduced to rule, love is out of the question. |
It is probable that there is no one thing that it is of eminent importance for a child to learn. The true object of juvenile education, is to provide, against the age of five and twenty, a mind well regulated, active, and prepared to learn. Whatever will inspire habits of industry and observation, will sufficiently answer this purpose. |
Justice is the sum of all moral duty. |
Learning is the ally, not the adversary of genius . . . he who reads in a proper spirit, can scarcely read too much. |
Let us not, in the eagerness of our haste to educate, forget all the ends of education. |
Liberty is one of the best of all sublunary advantages. I would willingly therefore communicate knowledge, without infringing, or with as little possible violence to, the volition and individual judgment of the person to be instructed. |
Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion. |
Man is the only creature we know, that, when the term of his natural life is ended, leaves the memory of himself behind him. |
My thoughts will be taken up with the future or the past, with what is to come or what has been. Of the present there is necessarily no image. |
Obey; this may be right; but beware of reverence. Government is nothing but regulated force; force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade; the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion. |
Once annihilate the quackery of government, and the most homebred understanding might be strong enough to detect the artifices of the state juggler that would mislead him. |
One of the prerogatives by which man is eminently distinguished from all other living beings inhabiting this globe of earth, consists in the gift of reason. |
Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue to operate but under the influence of desire. |
Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny. |