As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding and softens the heart.

A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.

Education makes a greater difference between man and man than nature has made between man and brute.

Genius is sorrows child.

The divine science of government is the science of social happiness, and the blessings of society depend entirely on the constitutions of government.

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.

This wasted time I have found by constant experience to be as indispensable as sleep. It cannot be employed in reading, nor even in thinking upon any serious subject. It must be wasted on trifles-doing nothing. The string of the bow must be slackened, and the bow itself laid aside.

All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.

Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.