Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.

Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.

The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

Government is the exercise of all the great qualities of the human mind.

The writers against religion, whilst they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.

Nothing ought to be more weighed than the nature of books recommended by public authority. So recommended, they soon form the character of the age.