No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than the false. The one guards virtue, the other betrays it.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.

Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind.