"We feel the necessity of deceiving ourselves, of even grossly deceiving ourselves, and of believing, when we are doing wrong, that we are doing right. When we do not succeed in reaching such persuasion, merely by sounding our own reason and conscience, we look about for something or some person to aid us in the attempt."

“Between God and man, between the gospel and each soul, the interpreter is Love.”

“Our object to-day is to point out to you, brethren, that tendency we all have to consult another, in order to shun consulting ourselves.”

“A conscience that is only sluggish, may submit to truth when it happens to meet with it: but a conscience under the seductions of passion, will not submit to it without great difficulty, and will devise some pretext, some expedient, for resisting the voice of truth that openly rebukes it.”

“The most doubtful reasoning appears to us clear and conclusive, when we can, in any way, twist it to an accordance with what we desire.”

“The light of conscience ... enters the eyes of the soul, as the light of the sun enters the eyes of the body; and to open the former requires no greater effort than to open the latter.”