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

Men love to hear of their power, but have an extreme disrelish to be told their duty.

In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows.

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.

An extreme rigor is sure to arm everything against it.

Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment.

To reach the height of our ambition is like trying to reach the rainbow; as we advance it recedes.