Everything wonderful in appearance has been ascribed to angels, to devils, or to saints. Everything ancient has some legendary tale annexed to it. The common operations of nature have not escaped their practice of corrupting everything.

Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Wrong cannot have a legal descendant.

How necessary it is at all times to watch against the attempted encroachment of power, and to prevent its running to excess.

If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.

The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.

Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.