Mediocrity is a hand-rail.

Vanity is as advantageous to a government as pride is dangerous. To be convinced of this we need only represent, on the one hand,the numberless benefits which result from vanity, as industry, the arts, fashions, politeness, and taste; and on the other, the infinite evils which spring from the pride of certain nations, a laziness, poverty, a total neglect of everything.

I shall be obliged to wander to the right and to the left, that I may investigate and discover the truth.

The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.

Nature is just to all mankind, and repays them for their industry. She renders them industrious by annexing rewards in proportion to their labor.

When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it and avarice possesses the whole community.

The English are busy; they don't have time to be polite.