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.

True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.

By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little.

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.

There is a wide difference between admiration and love. The sublime, which is the cause of the former, always dwells on great objects and terrible; the latter on small ones and pleasing; we submit to what we admire, but we love what submits to us: in one case we are forced, in the other, we are flattered, into compliance.

I do not know how to wish success to those whose Victory is to separate from us a large and noble part of our Empire. Still less do I wish success to injustice, oppression and absurdity.