The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

Nnothing tends more to the corruption of science than to suffer it to stagnate. These waters must be troubled, before they can exert their virtues.

The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.

Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.

Instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and, to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages.

An entire life of solitude contradicts the purpose of our being, since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror.