“People seldom improve when they have no model but themselves to copy after.”

“Modesty seldom resides in a breast that is not enriched with nobler virtues.”

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

“Life has been compared to a race, but the allusion improves by observing, that the most swift are usually the least manageable and the most likely to stray from the course. Great abilities have always been less serviceable to the possessors than moderate ones.”

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

“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.”

“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.”