Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolise power and profit. When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary. A bad cause will never be supported by bad means and bad men.
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
These are the times that try men's souls. Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. Human nature is not of itself vicious. The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.