A populace never rebels from passion for attack, but from impatience of suffering.

It is undoubtedly the business of ministers very much to consult the inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they do not receive that inclination from the few persons who may happen to approach them.

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

There are cases in which a man would be ashamed not to have been imposed upon. There is a confidence necessary to human intercourse, and without which men are often more injured by their own suspicions than they would be by the perfidy of others.

An entire life of solitude contradicts the purpose of our being, since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror.

Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.

Greater mischief happens often from folly, meanness, and vanity than from the greater sins of avarice and ambition.