It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

To reach the height of our ambition is like trying to reach the rainbow; as we advance it recedes.

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver; and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

If the prudence of reserve and decorum dictates silence in some circumstances, in others prudence of a higher order may justify us in speaking our thoughts.

My vigour relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.

It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen to approach them.