The very name of a politician, a statesman, is sure to cause terror and hatred; it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cruelty, fraud, and tyranny.

Politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasonings but to human nature, of which reason is but a part and by no means the greatest part.

There are some men formed with feelings so blunt that they can hardly be said to be awake during the whole course of their lives.

Oppression makes wise men mad; but the distemper is still the madness of the wise, which is better than the sobriety of fools.

Great men are never sufficiently shown but in struggles.

All virtue which is impracticable is spurious.

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.