Never, no never, did Nature say one thing, and wisdom another.

The whole compass of the language is tried to find sinonimies [synonyms] and circumlocutions for massacres and murder. Things never called by their common names. Massacre is sometimes called agitation, sometimes effervescence, sometimes excess sometimes too continued an exercise of revolutionary power.

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.

True humility-the basis of the Christian system-is the low but deep and firm foundation of all virtues.

The starry heaven, though it occurs so very frequently to our view, never fails to excite an idea of grandeur. This cannot be owing to the stars themselves, separately considered. The number is certainly the cause. The apparent disorder augments the grandeur, for the appearance of care is highly contrary to our ideas of magnificence. Besides, the stars lie in such apparent confusion, as makes it impossible on ordinary occasions to reckon them. This gives them the advantage of a sort of infinity.

[Slavery] is a weed that grows in every soil.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.