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.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

For there is in mankind an unfortunate propensity to make themselves, their views and their works, the measure of excellence in every thing whatsoever

It is undoubtedly true, though it may seem paradoxical,--but, in general, those who are habitually employed in finding and displaying faults are unqualified for the work of reformation.

Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.

A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins justice ends?

War is the matter which fills all history; and consequently the only, or almost the only, view in which we can see the external of political society is in a hostile shape: and the only actions to which we have always seen, and still see, all of them intent, are such as tend to the destruction of one another.