“I have known many of those pretended champions for liberty in my time, yet do I not remember one that was not in his heart and in his family a tyrant.”

“Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.”

“The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.”

“Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.”

“Don't let us make imaginary evils, when you know we have so many real ones to encounter.”

“I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.”

“Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.”