See nations slowly wise, and meanly just, to buried merit raise the tardy bust.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.

The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.

A man is not obliged honestly to answer a question which should not properly be put.

He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.

Locke, whom there is no reason to suspect of being a favorer of idleness or libertinism, has advanced that whoever hopes to employ any part of his time with efficacy and vigor must allow some of it to pass with trifles.