Man ... Has An Inborn Religious Sentiment

Without Undervaluing Any Other Human Agency, It May Be Safely Affirmed That The Common School, Improved And Energized, As It Can Easily Be, May Become The Most Effective And Benignant Of All The Forces Of Civilization. Two Reasons Sustain This Position. In The First Place, There Is A Universality In Its Operation, Which Can Be Affirmed Of No Other Institution Whatever... And, In The Second Place, The Materials Upon Which It Operates Are So Pliant And Ductile As To Be Susceptible Of Assuming A Greater Variety Of Forms Than Any Other Earthly Work Of The Creator.

If Ever There Was A Cause, If Ever There Can Be A Cause, Worthy To Be Upheld By All Of Toil Or Sacrifice That The Human Heart Can Endure, It Is The Cause Of Education. It Has Intrinsic And Indestructible Merits. It Holds The Welfare Of Mankind In Its Embrace, As The Protecting Arms Of A Mother Hold Her Infant To Her Bosom. The Very Ignorance And Selfishness Which Obstructs Its Path Are The Strongest Arguments For Its Promotion, For It Furnishes The Only Adequate Means For Their Removal.

Seek Not Greatness, But Seek Truth And You Will Find Both.

Much That We Call Evil Is Really Good In Disguises; And We Should Not Quarrel Rashly With Adversities Not Yet Understood, Nor Overlook The Mercies Often Bound Up In Them.

The False Man Is More False To Himself Than To Any One Else. He May Despoil Others, But Himself Is The Chief Loser. The World's Scorn He Might Sometimes Forget, But The Knowledge Of His Own Perfidy Is Undying.