To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind.

Supposing all the great points of atheism were formed into a kind of creed, I would fain ask whether it would not require an infinite greater measure of faith than any set of articles which they so violently oppose.

There is not a more pleasante exercise of the mind than gratitude.

My voice is still for war. Gods! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition, but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.