He that can swim needs not despair to fly; to swim is to fly in a grosser fluid, and to fly is to swim in a subtler. We are only to proportion our power of resistance to the different density of matter through which we are to pass. You will be necessarily upborne by the air if you can renew any impulse upon it faster than the air can recede from the pressure.

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

Lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed.

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.

That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments...

For gold the hireling judge distorts the laws.

No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself.