You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.

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

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

The tribunal of conscience exists independent of edicts and decrees.

For as wealth is power, so all power will infallibly draw wealth to itself by some means or other; and when men are left no way of ascertaining their profits but by their means of obtaining them, those means will be increased to infinity.

There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.

Contempt is not a thing to be despised.