Self-denial is a monkish virtue.

Absolute monarchy,... is the easiest death, the true Euthanasia of the BRITISH constitution.

Absolute monarchy is the easiest death, the true Euthanasia of the British constitution.

A man posing for a painting.

The end of all moral speculations is to teach us our duty; and, by proper representations of the deformity of vice and beauty of virtue, beget correspondent habits, and engage us to avoid the one, and embrace the other.

To be a philosophical sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential to being a sound, believing Christian.

Uncommon expressions are a disfigurement rather than an embellishment of discourse.

The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny; flattery to treachery; standing armies to arbitrary government; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy.

Do you come to a philosopher as to a cunning man, to learn something by magic or witchcraft, beyond what can be known by common prudence and discretion?

Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider affairs with a philosophical eye, than the ease with which the many are governed by the few.

While we are reasoning concerning life, life is gone.

Any person seasoned with a just sense of the imperfections of natural reason, will fly to revealed truth with the greatest avidity.

No human testimony can have such force as to prove a miracle, and make it a just foundation for any such system of religion.

that a rule, which, in speculation, may seem the most advantageous to society, may yet be found, in practice, totally pernicious and destructive.

Rousseau has not had the precaution to throw any veil over his sentiments; and as he scorns to dissemble his contempt of established opinions, he could not wonder that all the zealots were in arms against him.

It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have preference above the accurate.

Where then is the crime
of turning a few ounces of blood from their natural channel?

Barbarity, caprice; these qualities, however nominally disguised, we may universally observe from the ruling character of the deity in all regular religions.

The stability of modern governments above the ancient, and the accuracy of modern philosophy, have improved, and probably will still improve, by similar gradations.

Explanation is where the mind rests.