The march of the human mind is slow.

It is the nature of tyranny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill-success of first oppressions; on the contrary, all oppressors, all men thinking highly of the methods dictated by their nature, attribute the frustration of their desires to the want of sufficient rigor.

History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn.

All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.

Flattery is no more than what raises in a man's mind an idea of a preference which he has not.

He who calls in the aid of an equal understanding doubles his own; and he who profits by a superior understanding raises his powers to a level with the height of the superior standing he unites with.

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