You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclining to superstition.

The perfection of conversation is not to play a regular sonata, but, like the AEolian harp, to await the inspiration of the passing breeze.

Parliament is a deliberate assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purpose, not local prejudices ought to guide but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.

Prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, and can never be effectively enlisted in its cause.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

He only deserves to be remembered by posterity who treasures up and preserves the history of his ancestors.

Fiction lags after truth, invention is unfruitful, and imagination cold and barren.