“I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”

A tolerable expertness in military movements is a business that requires time and practice. It is not a day, or even a week, that will suffice for the attainment of it.

Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good.

The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men into excesses.

For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly.

Best of wives and best of women.

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

An avaricious man might be tempted to betray the interests of the state for the acquisition of wealth.

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

A powerful, victorious ally is yet another name for master.

The very aim and intention of the democratical part, or the house of commons, is to secure the rights of the people. It’s very being depends upon those rights. Its whole power is derived from them, and must be terminated by them.

Hard words are very rarely useful. Real firmness is good for every thing. Strut is good for nothing.

All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well-born, the other the mass of the people.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.

It is easy to love your friend, but sometimes the hardest lesson to learn is to love your enemy.

I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die.

What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean.

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

It is never too late to learn what is always necessary to know.

The secret is contained in a three-part formula I learned in the gym: self confidence, a positive mental attitude, and honest hard work.