No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

It is the quality of patriotism to be jealous and watchful, to observe all secret machinations, and to see publick dangers at a distance. The true lover of his country is ready to communicate his fears, and to sound the alarm, whenever he perceives the approach of mischief. But he sounds no alarm, when there is no enemy; he never terrifies his countrymen till he is terrified himself. The patriotism, therefore, may be justly doubted of him, who professes to be disturbed by incredibilities.

Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

Guilt once harbored in the conscious breast, intimidates the brave, degrades the great.

It is not difficult to conceive, however, that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering into refined speculations, it may be shown much easier to design than to perform. A man proposes his schemes of life in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of fear.

No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.