In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy function.

Unsociable humors are contracted in solitude, which will, in the end, not fail of corrupting the understanding as well as the manners, and of utterly disqualifying a man for the satisfactions and duties of life. Men must be taken as they are, and we neither make them or ourselves better by flying from or quarreling with them.

One source of the sublime is infinity.

No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.

Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue.

True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.