He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience.

To a people warlike and indigent, an incursion into a rich country is never hurtful.

He that resigns his peace to little casualties, and suffers the course of his life to be interrupted for fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and loses all that constancy and equanimity which constitutes the chief praise of a wise man.

The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.

A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you.

You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the sharper sword.

The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispers of conscience, by showing us that we have not endeavored to deserve well in vain.