The love of lucre, though sometimes carried to a ridiculous excess, a vicious excess, is the grand cause of prosperity to all States.

There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.

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

Nothing so effectually deadens the taste of the sublime as that which is light and radiant.

Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

The greatest sin is to do nothing because you can only do a little.