I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.

My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.

In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.