We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.

This is the part of a great man, after he has maturely weighed all circumstances, to punish the guilty, to spare the many, and in every state of fortune not to depart from an upright, virtuous conduct.

Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves.

All men have a feeling, that they would rather you told them a civil lie than give them a point blank refusal.... If you make a promise, the thing is still uncertain, depends on a future day, and concerns but few people; but if you refuse you alienate people to a certainty and at once, and many people too.

The wise man never loses his temper.

Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.

This excessive licence, which the anarchists think is the only true freedom, provides the stock, as it were, from which a tyrant grows.