The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.

The life of a scholar seldom abounds with adventure.

The soul may be compared to a field of battle, where the armies are ready every moment to encounter. Not a single vice but has a more powerful opponent, and not one virtue but may be overborne by a combination of vices.

Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of.

Those who place their affections at first on trifles for amusement, will find these trifles become at last their most serious concerns.

For just experience tells, in every soil, That those that think must govern those that toil.

The volumes of antiquity, like medals, may very well serve to amuse the curious, but the works of the moderns, like the current coin of a kingdom, are much better for immediate use.