Observe any meetings of people, and you will always find their eagerness and impetuosity rise or fall in proportion to their numbers.

Montesquieu well knew, and justly admired, the happy constitution of this country [Great Britain], where fixed and known laws equally restrain monarchy from tyranny and liberty from licentiousness.

Regularity in the hours of rising and retiring, perseverance in exercise, adaptation of dress to the variations of climate, simple and nutritious aliment, and temperance in all things are necessary branches of the regimen of health.

Either a good or a bad reputation outruns and gets before people wherever they go.

Deafness produces bizarre effects, reversing the natural order of things; the interchange of letters is the conversation of the deaf, and the only link with society. I would be in despair, for instance, over seeing you speak, but, instead, I am only too happy to hear you write.

Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always the best, if the editors are not blockheads.

If you can once engage people's pride, love, pity, ambition on your side, you need not fear what their reason can do against you.