... wealth and female softness equally tend to debase mankind!

In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.

Why is our fancy to be appalled by terrific perspectives of a hell beyond the grave?

Surely something resides in this heart that is not perishable - and life is more than a dream.

It is the preservation of the species, not of individuals, which appears to be the design of Deity throughout the whole of nature.

A war, or any wild-goose chase, is, as the vulgar use the phrase, a lucky turn-up of patronage for the minister, whose chief merit is the art of keeping himself in place.

Women have seldom sufficient employment to silence their feelings; a round of little cares, or vain pursuits frittering away all strength of mind and organs, they become naturally only objects of sense.