The duties of religion, sincerely and regularly performed, will always be sufficient to exalt the meanest and to exercise the highest understanding.

That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of the same kind; not only the same end must be proposed, but the same means must be approved by both.

Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil.

By writing, you learn to write.

To love their country has been considered as virtue in men, whose love could not be otherwise than blind, because their preference was made without, a comparison; but it has never been my fortune to find, either in ancient or modern writers, any honourable mention of those, who have, with equal blindness, hated their country.

A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.

Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.