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.

The moment you abate anything from the full rights of men to each govern himself, and suffer any artificial positive limitation upon those rights, from that moment the whole organization of government becomes a consideration of convenience.

The cause of a wrong taste is a defect of judgment.

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

It is in the relaxation of security; it is in the expansion of prosperity; it is in the hour of dilatation of the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure, that the real character of men is discerned.

The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.

The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.