Do to others as you would have others do to you, inspires all men with that other maxim of natural goodness a great deal less perfect, but perhaps more useful: Do good to yourself with as little prejudice as you can to others.

The majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart.

The want of occupation is no less the plague of society than of solitude.

Do you not know...that a child badly taught is farther from being wise than one not taught at all?

To discover the rules of society that are best suited to nations, there would need to exist a superior intelligence, who could understand the passions of men without feeling any of them, who had no affinity with our nature but knew it to the full, whose happiness was independent of ours, but who would nevertheless make our happiness his concern, who would be content to wait in the fullness of time for a distant glory, and to labour in one age to enjoy the fruits in another. Gods would be needed to give men laws.

The freedom of Mankind does not lie in the fact that can do what we want, but that we do not have to do that which we do not want.

The man is best served who has no occasion to put the hands of others at the end of his own arms.