When the fountain is corrupt, the stream cannot be pure. Thus any thing that will produce an abnormal condition of the blood, is paving the way for decay of the teeth.
Taft, J. "The Exciting Causes of Caries." Dental Register 10 (1857):187-192

Some persons in the dental profession, as everywhere else, eagerly grasp at, and become enthusiastic over anything and everything that is new, regardless of its real merits. Others again, with eagerness take hold of anything that promises profit; others there are – lazy souls – who readily adopt any mode of practice that can be easily and quickly accomplished. Again, there are some who examine carefully, in the light of science, the real merit of any mode of practice, and then testing it by careful experiment, determine accurately the true value of the process, and then adopt or reject, according to this umpire.
Taft, J. "Modes of Practice and their Vicissitudes." Dental Register 13 (1860):591-595.

Dentistry was not then a profession, but a confused, chaotic, unsystematized and very circumscribed calling, which was adopted by a few and followed chiefly in an experimental way.
Taft, J. "History of the Progress of Dentistry in the West." Transactions of the Iowa State Dental Society 30 (1893):113-127.

Once, it was esteemed a mere trade or mechanical occupation. It now stands side by side with other honorable, scientific, and responsible professions. Once, it was almost wholly, in the hands of ignorance, charlatancy, and knavery; now it can boast of men – in its foremost ranks – of learning, science, and sterling integrity.
Taft, J. "The Dental Profession – the Past and Future." Dental Register 6 (1853):119-129.

The press is one agency by which dental science has been so rapidly developed. In this we see one prominent cause of the rapid, aye unparalleled progress of dental science in our own country; in which there are some either or ten dental periodicals, when all the world besides cannot boast of half so many.
Taft, J. "The Dental Profession – the Past and Future." Dental Register 6 (1853):119-129.

Books are being multiplied to an endless extent. Works in almost every department of human knowledge are now within the reach of all. The press, scientific, political and religious, is scattering its sheets like leaves of autumn on every wind and distributing them to almost every habitation. In view of these facts, it requires not a Prophet's ken to discern the superior advantages that are flowing down to future generations through these channels. The present will not go to the future as the past has come to us.
Taft, J. "Valedictory Address to the Graduates of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, of the Session of 1955-6." Dental Register 10 (1857):282-293.

Perhaps teeth will be filled for a great while to come, but under a proper order of things, it should become less and less year by year, till by and by, there would only occasionally be such a thing as a filled tooth, and such things as sets of artificial teeth be but seldom, if at all found.
Taft, J. "The Future of Dentistry." Dental Register 16 (1862):492-494.

No educational institutions, especially those of more than an elementary character, can assume to be well equipped for their work without a good library and museum. The library should contain, as fully as possible, the entire literature of all subjects and branches taught in a given institution. Dental colleges should be no means be an exception in this respect.
Taft, J. "Progress and Needs of Dentistry." Dental Register 47 (1893):105-114.

"This in too many cases is the ruling power; can we operate and get the fee -- there the matter ends, so far as the welfare of the patient is concerned; this is a circumscribed effort to do good, it is acting from the lowest motive. Š Dentists will learn to act from higher motives than the dollar; they will find there is a higher reward for the highest effort to ward off disease and protect from its ravages." Taft, J. The Future of Dentistry. Dental Register 1862 16(11):492-494.

The quack seeks to cast the vail [sic] of mystery over every thing connected with his profession; this he does, that he may keep others in ignorance, that they may not "measure his shoal water;" but chiefly, that he may practice deception and fraud upon them.
Taft, J. "The Dental Profession – the Past and Future." Dental Register 6 (1853):119-129.

In the matter of the part which the mouth takes in the spread of contagious diseases, our profession is as well qualified to speak as the medical scientist.
Taft, J. Dental Register 57 (1903):223-224.

Women can accomplish good work, and I have observed they are always above men in their class. This is accounted for in that she is self-reliant. Women know they will meet opposition, and prepare for it; they determine to succeed. Many men are not first-class in every respect: it is a common opinion that it is easy to prepare for dentistry, and so these men who know they are not fitted for something else, enter the study of dentistry, expecting but little work and talent will be required. Women do not think so, and for that reason are eminently successful. Women go immediately into good positions, and will be a means of elevating the profession.
Taft, J. "Women as Dentists in Perfect Propriety." Items of Interest 12 (1890):38.