Those who have finished by making all others think with them, have usually been those who began by daring to think with themselves.

All who have been great and good without Christianity would have been much greater and better with it. If there be, amongst the sons of men, a single exception to this maxim, the divine Socrates may be allowed to put in the strongest claim. It was his high ambition to deserve, by deeds, not by creeds, an unrevealed heaven, and by works, not by faith, to enter an unpromised land.

There are both dull correctness and piquant carelessness; it is needless to say which will command the most readers and have the most influence.

Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.

The true motives of our actions, like the real pipes of an organ, are usually concealed; but the gilded and hollow pretext is pompously placed in the front for show.

If we trace the history of most revolutions, we shall find that the first inroads upon the laws have been made by the governors, as often as by the governed.

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