If misery be the effect of virtue, it ought to be reverenced; if of ill-fortune, to be pitied; and if of vice, not to be insulted, because it is perhaps itself a punishment adequate to the crime by which it was produced.

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

To scatter praise or blame without regard to justice is to destroy the distinction of good and evil. Many have no other test of actions than general opinion; and all are so far influenced by a sense of reputation that they are often restrained by fear of reproach, and excited by hope of honour, when other principles have lost their power.

Pity is not natural to man. Children always are cruel. Savages are always cruel.

Power is gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent.

There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave and seek prey only for himself.

A transition from an author's book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city.