What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.

Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.

One source of the sublime is infinity.

It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

Oppression makes wise men mad; but the distemper is still the madness of the wise, which is better than the sobriety of fools.

It is better to cherish virtue and humanity, by leaving much to free will, even with some loss of the object , than to attempt to make men mere machines and instruments of political benevolence. The world on the whole will gain by a liberty, without which virtue cannot exist.