To a zealot every one of his own sect is a saint, while the most upright of a different sect are to him children of perdition.

A relation is formed betwixt every man and the fruits of his own labour, the very thing we call property, which he himself is sensible of, and of which every other is equally sensible. Yours and mine are terms in all languages, familiar among savages, and understood even by children. This is a fact, which every human creature can testify.

As nice as we are in love, we forgive more faults in that than in friendship.

Death, whether it regards ourselves or others, appears less terrible in war than at home. The cries of women and children, friends in anguish, a dark room, dim tapers, priests and physicians, are what affect us the most on the death-bed. Behold us already more than half dead and buried.

Men are guided less by conscience than by glory; and yet the shortest way to glory is to be guided by conscience.

When you descant on the faults of others, consider whether you be not guilty of the same. To gain knowledge of ourselves, the best way is to convert the imperfections of others into a mirror for discovering our own.

Every man, however little, makes a figure in his own eyes.