When we live habitually with the wicked, we become necessarily either their victim or their disciple; when we associate, on the contrary, with virtuous men, we form ourselves in imitation of their virtues, or, at least, lose every day something of our faults.

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

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.

Public charities and benevolent associations for the gratuitous relief of every species of distress, are peculiar to Christianity; no other system of civil or religious policy has originated them; they form its highest praise and characteristic feature.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.

He that openly tells, his friends all that he thinks of them, must expect that they will secretly tell his enemies much that they do not think of him.

Time is the measurer of all things, but is itself immeasurable, and the grand discloser of all things, but is itself undisclosed.