It is sublime to think and say of another, I need never meet, or speak, or write to him: we need not reinforce ourselves, or send tokens of remembrance; I rely on him as on myself: if he did thus and thus, I know it was right.

Whatever we think and say is wonderfully better for our spirits and trust in another mouth.

Wild liberty breeds iron conscience; natures with great impulses have great resources, and return from far.

Sugar is not so sweet to the palate as sound to the healthy ear.

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well. What satire on government can equal the severity of censure conveyed in the word politics ....?

The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed, there is no winter and no night; all tragedies, all ennui s, vanish, all duties even.

The modernness of all good books seems to give men an existence as wide as man.