If we are more affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life.

Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.

An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase the favour of Heaven if he maintained the idle at the expense of the industrious, and distributed among the saints the wealth of the republic.

According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman.

As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.

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

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