The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.
People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants.
People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws.
More sinners are cursed at not because we despise their sins but because we envy their success at sinning.
History, is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires.
In the plays of Shakespeare man appears as he is, made up of a crowd of passions which contend for the mastery over him, and govern him in turn.
The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman.
Our judgment ripens; our imagination decays. We cannot at once enjoy the flowers of the Spring of life and the fruits of its Autumn.
The Church is the handmaid of tyranny and the steady enemy of liberty.
A government cannot be wrong in punishing fraud or force, but it is almost certain to be wrong if, abandoning its legitimate function, it tells private individuals that it knows their business better than they know it themselves.
A page digested is better than a volume hurriedly read.
The doctrine which, from the very first origin of religious dissensions, has been held by bigots of all sects, when condensed into a few words and stripped of rhetorical disguise, is simply this: I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me; for it is your duty to tolerate truth. But when I am the stronger I shall persecute you; for it is my duty to persecute error.
And to say that society ought to be governed by the opinion of the wisest and best, though true, is useless. Whose opinion is to decide who are the wisest and best?
A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.
Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the state. Let the Government do this: the People will assuredly do the rest.
No man in the world acts up to his own standard of right.
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all before us, and with just as much apparent reason.
No man who is correctly informed as to the past will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.
It is good to be often reminded of the inconsistency of human nature, and to learn to look without wonder or disgust on the weaknesses which are found in the strongest minds.
Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?
Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.
Our estimate of a character always depends much on the manner in which that character affects our own interests and passions.
The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.
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