Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament.

Thank God, men that art greatly guilty are never wise.

The cause of a wrong taste is a defect of judgment.

A man is allowed sufficient freedom of thought, provided he knows how to choose his subject properly.... But the scene is changed as you come homeward, and atheism or treason may be the names given in Britain to what would be reason and truth if asserted in China.

It is hard to say whether doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery.

Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.

The public interest requires doing today those things that men of intelligence and good will would wish, five or ten years hence, had been done.