“We live in the midst of blessings till we are utterly insensible of their greatness and the source from whence they flow. We speak of our civilization, our arts, our freedom, our laws, and forget entirely how large a share is due to Christianity. Blot Christianity out of the pages of man’s history, and what would his laws have been? what his civilization? Christianity is mixed up with our very being and our daily life; there is not a familiar object around us which does not wear a different aspect because the life of Christian love is on it – not a law which does not owe its gentleness to Christianity – not a custom which cannot be traced, in all its holy, healthful parts, to the gospel.”
Sir William Jones
Prose quotations from Socrates to Macaulay by Samuel Austin Allibone
The American Heritage Project 