To expect an author to talk as he writes is ridiculous; or even if he did you would find fault with him as a pedant.

Persons who undertake to pry into, or cleanse out all the filth of a common sewer, either cannot have very nice noses, or will soon lose them.

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.

I hate to be near the sea, and to hear it roaring and raging like a wild beast in its den. It puts me in mind of the everlasting efforts of the human mind, struggling to be free, and ending just where it began.

A man who does not endeavour to seem more than he is will generally be thought nothing of. We habitually make such large deductions for pretence and imposture that no real merit will stand against them. It is necessary to set off our good qualities with a certain air of plausibility and self-importance, as some attention to fashion is necessary.

We are all of us, more or less, the slaves of opinion.

If you think you can win, you can win. Faith is necessary to victory.