By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever.

To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

There is a boundary to men's passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.

It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.

Good order is the foundation of all things.

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.

I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.

To innovate is not to reform.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.

Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Ambition can creep as well as soar.

The most important of all revolutions, a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions.

It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

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.

Education is the cheap defense of nations.

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body.

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.

The march of the human mind is slow.

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.

Beauty in distress is much the most affecting beauty.

Superstition is the religion of feeble minds.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.

One that confounds good and evil is an enemy to good.

All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.

Laws, like houses, lean on one another.

Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.