Sir, sorrow is inherent in humanity. As you cannot judge two and two to be either five, or three, but certainly four, so, when comparing a worse present state with a better which is past, you cannot but feel sorrow. It is not cured by reason, but by the incursion of present objects, which bear out the past.

Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.

I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he has never thought upon the subject.

Ah! Sir, a boy's being flogged is not so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him.

Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation.

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.