Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

I tolerate with the utmost latitude the right of others to differ from me in opinion without imputing to them criminality.

the study of the law is useful in a variety of points of view. it qualifies a man to be useful to himself, to his neighbors, & to the public.

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.

Speaking one day to Monsieur de Buffon, on the present ardor of chemical inquiry, he affected to consider chemistry but as cookery, and to place the toils of the laboratory on the footing with those of the kitchen. I think it, on the contrary, among the most useful of sciences, and big with future discoveries for the utility and safety of the human race.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.