Perhaps that is nearly the perfection of good writing which is original, but whose truth alone prevents the reader from suspecting that it is so; and which effects that for knowledge which the lens effects for the sunbeam, when it condenses its brightness in order to increase its force.

There is one passage in the Scriptures to which all the potentates of Europe seem to have given their unanimous assent and approbation...."There went out a decree in the days of Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed."

Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.

When all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so.

Secrecy of design, when combined with rapidity of execution, like me column that guided Israel in the deserts, becomes the guardian pillar of light and fire to our friends, a cloud of overwhelming and impenetrable darkness to our enemies.

All poets pretend to write for immortality, but the whole tribe have no objection to present pay and present praise.

Gold is worshipped in all climates, without a single temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite.