God is on the side of virtue; for whoever dreads punishment suffers it, and whoever deserves it, dreads it .

As that gallant can best affect a pretended passion for one woman who has no true love for another, so he that has no real esteem for any of the virtues can best assume the appearance of them all.

The whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other

Insults are engendered from vulgar minds, like toadstools from a dunghill.

Neither can we admit that definition of genius that some would propose--"a power to accomplish all that we undertake;" for we might multiply examples to prove that this definition of genius contains more than the thing defined. Cicero failed in poetry, Pope in painting, Addison in oratory; yet it would be harsh to deny genius to these men.

It is seldom that statesmen have the option of choosing between a good and an evil.

We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.