Hereditary wealth is in reality a premium paid to idleness.

There must be room for the imagination to exercise its powers; we must conceive and apprehend a thousand things which we do not actually witness.

No maxim can be more pernicious than that which would teach us to consult the temper of the times, and to tell only so much as we imagine our contemporaries will be able to bear.

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.

What indeed is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the name.

Obey; this may be right; but beware of reverence.... Government is nothing but regulated force; force is its appropriate claim upon your attention. It is the business of individuals to persuade; the tendency of concentrated strength, is only to give consistency and permanence to an influence more compendious than persuasion.