Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be bought. It must be born with men, or else all the obligations in the world will not create it.

In our corrupted state, common weaknesses and defects contribute more towards the reconciling us to one another than all the precepts of the philosophers and divines.

The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation.

Ignorance makes most men go into a political party, and shame keeps them from getting out of it.

A person may dwell so long upon a thought that it may take him a prisoner.

The past is the best way to suppose what may come.

Nothing would more contribute to make a man wise than to have always an enemy in his view.