People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous.

Flattery is no more than what raises in a man's mind an idea of a preference which he has not.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.

To drive men from independence to live on alms, is itself great cruelty.

My good friends, while I do most earnestly recommend you to take care of your health and safety, as things most precious to us, I would not have that care degenerate into an effeminate and over-curious attention, which is always disgraceful to a man's self, and often troublesome to others.

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.