Men want to be reminded, who do not want to be taught; because those original ideas of rectitude to which the mind is compelled to assent when they are proposed, are not always as present to us as they ought to be.

The more accurately we search into the human mind, the stronger traces we everywhere find of his wisdom who made it.

An appearance of delicacy, and even fragility, is almost essential to beauty.

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.

It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.

I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power, from an obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honor ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be open through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle.

All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they may alter the mode and application, but have no power over the substance of original justice.