Andrew Corrie

“Earth felt the wound,
and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her Works
gave signs of woe,
That all was lost.”
― John Milton, Paradise Lost

“So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. Keimer”
― Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography and Other Writings

“I think all the heretics I have known have been virtuous men. They have the virtue of fortitude, or they would not venture to own their heresy; and they cannot afford to be deficient in any of the other virtues, as they would give advantage to their many enemies; and they have not, like orthodox sinners, such a number of friends to excuse or justify them.”
― Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography and Other Writings

“Moralists of the sternest persuasion would readily agree with Horace that neither high birth nor clever words can recommend the soul in the face of final judgement. But then the poet puts in his hammer blow: '... non te restituet pietas.' Not virtue itself is going to be any help. All, in fact, is vanity: not only gold and silver, not only worldly fame and accomplishment, but duty, faith, and purity too. The highest moral character can procure one no preference among the shades.”
― Simon Raven