The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man, by substituting justice for instinct in his conduct.

Luxury... corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.

God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.

It is often said that my heart is too open for my own good.

It is not the criminal things which are hardest to confess, but the ridiculous and shameful.

I felt before I thought

Little privations are easily endured when the heart is better treated than the body.