249 quotes
All who have ever written on government are unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.
Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777)
A thing may look specious in theory, and yet be ruinous in practice; a thing may look evil in theory, and yet be in practice excellent.
It has all the contortions of the sibyl without the inspiration.
Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world.
Well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar.
Letters On a Regicide Peace (1796)
Always steady in the rejection of a Reform of Parliam[en]t which proved the best sense, & better than some sense they were deficient in at Times.
Power gradually extirpates from the mind every humane and gentle virtue. Pity, benevolence, friendship, are things almost unknown in high stations.
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Parties in religion and politics make sufficient discoveries concerning each other, to give a sober man a proper caution against them all.
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
Oh! Sir—people upon their knees get on very slowly.
Are chiefly cherished in Provinces far from Capitals. They are the standing Wisdom of a Country, though frequently Preposterous on a first view of them.
The lawyers, as well as the theologians, have erected another reason besides natural reason; and the result has been, another justice besides natural justice.
A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.
Applaud us when we run, console us when we fall, cheer us when we recover.
Boldness formerly was not the character of Atheists as such. ... But of late they are grown active, designing, turbulent, and seditious.
Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.
The greatest crimes do not arise from a want of feeling for others but from an over-sensibility for ourselves and an over-indulgence to our own desires.
But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance, it is the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant religion.
Speech on Conciliation with America (1774)