The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other.

Friendship is the union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond thereof virtue

The humble, meek, merciful, and just are everywhere of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask they will know one another, though the diverse liveries they wear here make them strangers.

Death then, being the way and condition of life, we cannot love to live if we cannot bear to die.

Peace can only be secured by justice; never by force of arms.

It is certain that the most natural and human government is that of consent, for that binds freely, ... when men hold their liberty by true obedience to rules of their own making.

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals.