A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.

An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

The moral duty of man consists of imitatingthe moral goodness and beneficence of God,manifested in the creation, toward all His creatures.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.

The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly.