Compassion to an offender who has grossly violated the laws is, in effect, a cruelty to the peaceable subject who has observed them.

There is a holy mistaken zeal in politics as well as religion. By persuading others, we convince ourselves.

How much easier is it to be generous than just.

The right of election is the very essence of the constitution.

Let all your views in life be directed to a solid, however moderate, independence; without it no man can be happy, nor even honest.

It is a maxim received in life that, in general, we can determine more wisely for others than for ourselves. The reason of it is so dear in argument that it hardly wants the confirmation of experience.

The lives of the best of us are spent in choosing between evils.