I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people.

I despair of ever receiving the same degree of pleasure from the most exalted performances of genius which I felt in childhood from pieces which my present judgment regards as trifling and contemptible.

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.

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.

No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

The question is not whether you have a right to render people miserable, but whether it is not in your best interest to make them happy.