[It] is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws.

The most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence, and describe the condition of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body.

Fear has been the original parent of superstition, and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies.

The possession and the enjoyment of property are the pledges which bind a civilised people to an improved country.

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.

A nation ignorant of the equal benefits of liberty and law, must be awed by the flashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty of a despot will assume the character of justice; his profusion, of liberality; his obstinacy, of firmness.

History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.