A coxcomb begins by determining that his own profession is the first; and he finishes by deciding that he is the first of profession.

Vanity finds in self-love so powerful an ally that it storms, as it were, by a coup de main,, the citadel of our heads, where, having blinded the two watchmen, it readily descends into the heart.

Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed than the night can happen before the sun is set.

All poets pretend to write for immortality, but the whole tribe have no objection to present pay and present praise.

The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.

The policy that can strike only while the iron is hot will be overcome by that perseverance, which ... can make that iron hot by striking and he that can only rule the storm must yield to him who can both raise and rule it.

The victim to too severe a law is considered as a martyr rather than a criminal.