We have now learned that rashness and imprudence will not be deterred from taking credit; let us try whether fraud and avarice may be more easily restrained from giving it.

The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.

Some read for style, and some for argument: one has little care about the sentiment, he observes only how it is expressed; another regards not the conclusion, but is diligent to mark how it is inferred; they read for other purposes than the attainment of practical knowledge; and are no more likely to grow wise by an examination of a treatise of moral prudence, than an architect to inflame his devotion by considering attentively the proportions of a temple.

I know not any crime so great that a man could contrive to commit as poisoning the sources of eternal truth.

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

Beauty, without kindness, dies unenjoyed and undelighting.

The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.