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.

The majority of a society is the true definition of the public.

It seems to be remarkable that death increases our veneration for the good, and extenuates our hatred for the bad.

No man was ever great by imitation.

I have adopted the Roman sentiment, that it is more honorable to save a citizen than to kill an enemy.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.