A great deal of the furniture of ancient tyranny is torn to rags; the rest is entirely out of fashion.

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

It is by bribing, not so often by being bribed, that wicked politicians bring ruin on mankind. Avarice is a rival to the pursuits of many.

Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. If parsimony were to be considered as one of the kinds of that virtue, there is, however, another and a higher economy. Economy is a distinctive virtue, and consists not in saving, but in selection.

This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature.

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

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants.