If merited, no courage can stand against its just indignation.

If you want enemies, excel others; if you want friends, let others excel you.

There are truths which some men despise because they have not examined, and which they will not examine because they despise. There is one signal instance on record where this kind of prejudice was overcome by a miracle; but the age of miracles is past, while that of prejudice remains.

Wit in women is a jewel, which, unlike all others, borrows lustre from its setting, rather than bestows it; since nothing is so easy as to fancy a very beautiful woman extremely witty.

Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears.

A wise minister would rather preserve peace than gain a victory, because he knows that even the most successful war leaves nations generally more poor, always more profligate, than it found them.

Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.