Hereditary property sophisticates the mind, and the unfortunate victims to it ... swathed from their birth, seldom exert the locomotive faculty of body or mind; and, thus viewing every thing through one medium, and that a false one, they are unable to discern in what true merit and happiness consist.

A modest man is steady, an humble man timid, and a vain one presumptuous.

I must be allowed to add some explanatory remarks to bring the subject home to reason-to that sluggish reason, which supinely takes opinions on trust, and obstinately supports them to spare itself the labour of thinking.

Virtue can only flourish among equals.

No man chooses evil because it's evil. He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

The two sexes mutually corrupt and improve each other.

It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.