Politics is the food of sense exposed to the hunger of folly.

The mind's eye is perhaps no better fitted for the full radiance of truth, than is the body's for that of the sun.

How seldom is generosity perfect and pure! How often do men give because it throws a certain inferiority on those who receive, and superiority on themselves!

Every character is in some respects uniform, and in others inconsistent; and it is only by the study both of the uniformity and inconsistency, and a comparison of them with each other, that the knowledge of man is acquired.

It would be doing cunning too much honor to call it an inferior species of true discernment.

It has been said that the beauties of the mind are valuable because they are more lasting than those of the body; but I do not remember to have heard it said that the beauties of the mind are valuable because they make those of the body more lasting.

The criterion of true beauty is that it increases on examination; if false, that it lessens.