Man is an animal that cooks his victuals.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

It is by imitation, far more than by precept, that we learn everything; and what we learn thus, we acquire not only more effectually, but more pleasantly.

The religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principles of resistance: it is the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant religion.

The method of teaching which approaches most nearly to the method of investigation is incomparably the best.

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body. On the due digestion of the former depend the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigor and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable companion in the commerce of human life, is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts.

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.