There is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding and a well-protected pursuit.

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

My good friends, while I do most earnestly recommend you to take care of your health and safety, as things most precious to us, I would not have that care degenerate into an effeminate and over-curious attention, which is always disgraceful to a man's self, and often troublesome to others.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

Ambition can creep as well as soar.

An entire life of solitude contradicts the purpose of our being, since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror.

[Slavery] is a weed that grows in every soil.