In all political regulations, good cannot be complete, it can only be predominant.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.

Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no extraordinary talents to lie and deceive.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.

To expect that the intricacies of science will be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame ascended without labour, is to expect a peculiar privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to suppose that the maze is inscrutable to diligence, or the heights inaccessible to perseverance, is to submit tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary shackles.

Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss.