The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.

The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express our ideas; and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent.

In old age the consolation of hope is reserved for the tenderness of parents, who commence a new life in their children, the faith of enthusiasts, who sing hallelujahs above the clouds; and the vanity of authors, who presume the immortality of their name and writings.

In this primitive and abject state [of hunters and gatherers], which ill deserves the name of society, the human brute, without arts or laws, almost without sense or language, is poorly distinguished from the rest of the animal creation.

[But] the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his children and his property, has lost in society the first and most active energies of nature.

To a lover of books the shops and sales in London present irresistible temptations.

Since the primitive times, the wealth of the popes was exposed to envy, their powers to opposition, and their persons to violence.