If ever Shakespeare rants, it is not when his imagination is hurrying him along, but when he is hurrying his imagination along.

I have not the smallest doubt that, if we had a purely democratic government here, the effect would be the same. Either the poor would plunder the rich, and civilisation would perish; or order and property would be saved by a strong military government, and liberty would perish.

A beggarly people, A church and no steeple.

Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found together. Obscurity and affectation are the two greatest faults of style. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas; and the same wish to dazzle, at any cost, which produces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likely to produce sophistry in his reasonings.

I don't mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think.

Man is so inconsistent a creature that it is impossible to reason from his beliefs to his conduct, or from one part of his belief to another.

The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn.