A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes.

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

The false notion of miracles comes of our vanity, which makes us believe we are important enough for the Supreme Being to upset nature on our behalf.

No tyranny is more cruel than the one practised in the shadow of the laws and under color of justice - when, so to speak, one proceeds to drown the unfortunate on the very plank by which they had saved themselves. And since a tyrant never lacks instruments for his tyranny, Tiberius always found judges ready to condemn as many people as he might suspect.

Raillery is a mode of speaking in favor of one's wit at the expense of one's better nature.

There is hardly any grief that an hour's reading will not dissipate.

Peace is a natural effect of trade.