Man may aspire to virtue, but he cannot reasonably aspire to truth.

Where violence reigns, reason is weak.

Many men and women enjoy popular esteem, not because they are known, but because they are not known.

There are more fools than wise men, and even in a wise man there is more folly than wisdom.

Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.

Too elevated qualities often unfit a man for society. We do not go to market with ingots, but with silver and small change.

In great matters, men behave as they are expected to; in little ones, as they would naturally