Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race.
Distance is a great promoter of admiration.
He whom we call a gentleman is no longer the man of Nature.
Scepticism is the first step toward truth.
One may demand of me that I should seek truth, but not that I should find it
The good of the people must be the great purpose of government. By the laws of nature and of reason, the governors are invested with power to that end. And the greatest good of the people is liberty. It is to the state what health is to the individual.