Our possessions are wholly in our performances. He owns nothing to whom the world owes nothing.

He who would acquire fame must not show himself afraid of censure. The dread of censure is the death of genius.

It should console us for the fact that sin has not totally disappeared from the world, that the saints are not wholly deprived of employment.

The wonder is not that the world is so easily governed, but that so small a number of persons will suffice for the purpose. There are dead weights in political and legislative bodies as in clocks, and hundreds answer as pulleys who would never do for politicians.

To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.

The only true source of politeness is consideration,--that vigilant moral sense which never loses sight of the rights, the claims, and the sensibilities of others. This is the one quality, over all others, necessary to make a gentleman.

The birth of a child is the imprisonment of a soul.