Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.

Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the character of the age.

The parties are the gamesters; but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner in the end.

It is for the most part in our skill in manners, and in the observations of time and place and of decency in general, that what is called taste by way of distinction consists; and which is in reality no other than a more refined judgment.

Curiosity is the most superficial of all the affections; it changes its object perpetually; it has an appetite which is very sharp, but very easily satisfied, and it has always an appearance of giddiness, restlessness and anxiety.

They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate.

The greatest crimes do not arise from a want of feeling for others but from an over-sensibilit y for ourselves and an over-indulgence to our own desires