It is with antiquity as with ancestry, nations are proud of the one, and individuals of the other; but if they are nothing in themselves, that which is their pride ought to be their humiliation.

The science of legislation is like that of medicine in one respect: that it is far more easy to point out what will do harm than what will do good.

Strong as our passions are, they may be starved into submission, and conquered without being killed.

When all moves equally (says Pascal), nothing seems to move as in a vessel under sail; and when all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so. He that stops first, views as from a fixed point the horrible extravagance that transports the rest.

He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.

Subtract from many modern poets all that may be found in Shakespeare, and trash will remain.

We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves.