Great men, like comets, are eccentric in their courses, and formed to do extensive good by modes unintelligible to vulgar minds.

True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.

It is a mistake, that a lust for power is the mark of a great mind; for even the weakest have been captivated by it; and for minds of the highest order, it has no charms.

Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.

We ask advice but we mean approbation.

The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down.

He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.