I do not now so much as wish to have the Strength of Youth again that I wish’d in Youth for the Strength of an Ox or Elephant. For it is our Business only to make the best Use we can of the Powers granted us by Nature.
The man who is always fortunate cannot easily have a great reverence for virtue.
It is a great proof of talents to be able to recall the mind from the senses, and to separate thought from habit.
I prefer the wisdom of the uneducated to the folly of the loquacious.
To be ignorant of the past is to be forever a child.
Time is the herald of truth.
In all great arts, as in trees, it is the height that charms us; we care nothing for the roots or trunks, yet it could not be without the aid of these.
Oh, how great is the power of truth! which of its own power can easily defend itself against all the ingenuity and cunning and wisdom of men, and against the treacherous plots of all the world.
What fervent love of herself would Virtue excite if she could be seen!
Every generous action loves the public view; yet no theatre for virtue is equal to a consciousness of it.
No one dies too soon who has finished the course of perfect virtue.
Virtue is uniform, conformable to reason, and of unvarying consistency; nothing can be added to it that can make it more than virtue; nothing can be taken from it, and the name of virtue be left.
Scurrility has no object in view but incivility; if it is uttered from feelings of petulance, it is mere abuse; if it is spoken in a joking manner, it may be considered raillery.
Wars, therefore, are to be undertaken for this end, that we may live in peace, without being injured; but when we obtain the victory, we must preserve those enemies who behaved without cruelty or inhumanity during the war.
There are some duties we owe even to those who have wronged us. There is, after all, a limit to retribution and punishment.
Law stands mute in the midst of arms.
We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.
Our thoughts are free.
The evil implanted in man by nature spreads so imperceptibly, when the habit of wrong-doing is unchecked, that he himself can set no limit to his shamelessness.
What we call pleasure, and rightly so is the absence of all pain.