National antipathy is the basest, because the most illiberal and illiterate of all prejudices.

Magnanimity is above circumstance; and any virtue which depends on that is more of constitution than of principle.

The doubts of love are never to be wholly overcome; they grow with its various anxieties, timidities, and tenderness, and are the very fruits of the reverence in which the admired object is beheld.

Imparting knowledge is only lighting other men's candles at our lamp without depriving ourselves of any flame.

The flatterer easily insinuates himself into the closet, while honest merit stands shivering in the hall or antechamber.

To be truly and really independent is to support ourselves by our own exertions.

A sincere acquaintance with ourselves teaches us humility; and from humility springs that benevolence which compassionates the transgressors we condemn, and prevents the punishments we inflict from themselves partaking of crime, in being rather the wreakings of revenge than the chastisements of virtue.