The frequent repetition of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not subdue, the reason of mankind.

The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.

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

When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow that is not mortal or decisive can be productive only of a short truce, which allows the unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his arms for a new encounter.

A taste for books, which is still the pleasure and glory of my life.

But a wild democracy . . . too often disdains the essential principles of justice.

The fabric of a mighty state, which has been reared by the labours of successive ages, could not be overturned by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal power of the imagination did not exaggerate the real measure of the calamity.