Should the whole frame of nature round him break, In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world.

Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

There are no more useful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together in a mutual intercourse of good offices, distribute the gifts of Nature, find work for the poor, and wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great.

Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding-places in a voluminous writer.

There is not on earth a spectacle more worthy the regard of a Creator intent on his works, than a brave man superior to his sufferings.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.