"Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people."

"I am not at all a politician."

"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for."

"Knowledge is the only virtue, because once a man knows good from evil, nothing on earth can compel him to act against that knowledge."

"All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine."