Contempt is a kind of gangrene which, if it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees.

Justice is indispensably and universally necessary, and what is necessary must always be limited, uniform, and distinct

Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking

Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.

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

Long customs are not easily broken; he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labors in vain; and how shall we do that for others, which we are seldom able to do for ourselves.