The pride of men will not often suffer reason to have scope until it can be no longer of service.

If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so,and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.

Man acts from adequate motives relative to his interest, and not on metaphysical speculations.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

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

Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose a member indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament.

The question is not whether you have a right to render people miserable, but whether it is not in your best interest to make them happy.