This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature.

Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by too confident a security.

People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarreling with them.

[Slavery] is a weed that grows in every soil.

I take toleration to be a part of religion. I do not know which I would sacrifice; I would keep them both: it is not necessary that I should sacrifice either.

To give freedom is still more easy. It is not necessary to guide; it only requires to let go the rein. But to form a free government; that is, to temper together these opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one work, requires much thought, deep reflection, a sagacious, powerful, and combining mind.

Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.