Unsociable humors are contracted in solitude, which will, in the end, not fail of corrupting the understanding as well as the manners, and of utterly disqualifying a man for the satisfactions and duties of life. Men must be taken as they are, and we neither make them or ourselves better by flying from or quarreling with them.

All virtue which is impracticable is spurious.

The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis.

The superfluities of a rich nation furnish a better object of trade than the necessities of a poor one. It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

When a great man has some one object in view to be achieved in a given time, it may be absolutely necessary for him to walk out of all the common roads.

Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.

I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and pain of others