You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity.

To do nothing is in everyone's power.

What I gained by being in France was learning to be better satisfied with my own country.

The desires of man increase with his acquisitions.

Every government is perpetually degenerating towards corruption, from which it must be rescued at certain periods by the resuscitation of its first principles, and the re-establishment of its original constitution.

No man is much regarded by the rest of the world. He that considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others, will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself. While we see multitudes passing before us, of whom perhaps not one appears to deserve our notice or excites our sympathy, we should remember, that we likewise are lost in the same throng, that the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him that follows us, and that the utmost which we can reasonably hope or fear is to fill a vacant hour with prattle, and be forgotten.

Those who attempt nothing themselves think every thing easily performed, and consider the unsuccessful always as criminal.