Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.
I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.
In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.
It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.
Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.
The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.
Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
Laws, like houses, lean on one another.
Under the pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition, men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical aid to their moral consolations - wine, beer, opium, brandy, or tobacco.
I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.
The person who grieves suffers his passion to grow upon him; he indulges it, he loves it; but this never happens in the case of actual pain, which no man ever willingly endured for any considerable time.
