The axe of intemperance has lopped off his green boughs and left him a withered trunk.

Nothing is so great an example of bad manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none; If you flatter only one or two, you offend the rest.

The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.

Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation, as it is generally in books the worst sort of reading.

Men always grow vicious before they become unbelievers.

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

The motives of the best actions will not bear too strict an inquiry. It is allowed that the cause of most actions, good or bad, may be resolved into the love of ourselves; but the self-love of some men inclines them to please others, and the self-love of others is wholly employed in pleasing themselves. This makes the great distinction between virtue and vice.