A man is allowed sufficient freedom of thought, provided he knows how to choose his subject properly.... But the scene is changed as you come homeward, and atheism or treason may be the names given in Britain to what would be reason and truth if asserted in China.

Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is of no mean force in the government of mankind.

By the disposition of a stupendous wisdom, moulding together the great mysterious incorporation of the human race, the whole, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young; but, in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression.

Men are as much blinded by the extremes of misery as by the extremes of prosperity.

The tribunal of conscience exists independent of edicts and decrees.

I consider how little man is, yet, in his own mind, how great. He is lord and master of all things, yet scarce can command anything.

Prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, and can never be effectively enlisted in its cause.