Man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements.

[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.

A society in which marriage is encouraged and industry prevails soon repairs the accidental losses of pestilence and war.

The laws of a nation form the most instructive portion of its history

The chaste severity of the fathers in whatever related to the commerce of the two sexes flowed from the same principle -- their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify the sensual and degrade the spiritual nature of man. It was their favourite opinion, that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he would have lived for ever in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal beings.

The complaints of contemporary writes, who deplore the increase of luxury and deprevation of manners, are commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and situation. There are few observers who possess a clear and comprehensive view of the revolutions of society, and who are capable of discovering the nice and secret springs of action which impel, in the same uniform direction, the bland and capricious passions of a multitude of individuals.

But a law, however venerable be the sanction, cannot suddenly transform the temper of the times . . .