Nothing, indeed, but the possession of some power can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true character of any man.

I despair of ever receiving the same degree of pleasure from the most exalted performances of genius which I felt in childhood from pieces which my present judgment regards as trifling and contemptible.

We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.

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. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.

He only deserves to be remembered by posterity who treasures up and preserves the history of his ancestors.

I consider how little man is, yet, in his own mind, how great. He is lord and master of all things, yet scarce can command anything.

By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression.