A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in
this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.
All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
All wealth is the product of labor.
An excellent man, like precious metal, is in every way invariable; A villain, like the beams of a balance, is always varying, upwards and downwards.
Any one reflecting upon the thought he has of the delight, which any present or absent thing is apt to produce in him, has the idea we call love.
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.
I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment.
It is easier for a tutor to command than to teach.
It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.
It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience.