When ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. From that moment, we have no compass to govern us, nor can we know distinctly to what port to steer.

As the rose-tree is composed of the sweetest flowers and the sharpest thorns, as the heavens are sometimes overcast—alternately tempestuous and serene—so is the life of man intermingled with hopes and fears, with joys and sorrows, with pleasure and pain.

The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men.

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

Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.

The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.

Woman is not made to be the admiration of everybody , but the happiness of one.