JAMES MACKINTOSH

Men are never so good or so bad as their opinions.

The [House of] Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a wise and masterly inactivity [during the French Revolution].

Those who preached faith, or in other words a pure mind, have always produced more popular virtue than those who preached good acts, or the mere regulation of outward works.

The frivolous work of polished idleness.

Every fiction since Homer has taught friendship, patriotism, generosity, contempt of death. These are the highest virtues; and the fictions which taught them were therefore of the highest, though not of unmixed, utility.

Of all the delusions that existed, Posthumous Fame was the greatest.

A vice utterly at variance with the happiness of him who harbors it, and, as such, condemned by self-love.

The Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a wise and masterly inactivity.

It is not because we have been free, but because we have a right to be free, that we ought to demand freedom. Justice and liberty have neither birth nor race, youth nor age.

The wealth of society is its stock of productive labor.

Maxims are the condensed good sense of nations.

It is right to be contented with what we have, never with what we are.

Men are never so good or so bad as their opinions.

Whatever is popular deserves attention.

Of all the delusions that existed, Posthumous Fame was the greatest.

The [House of] Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a wise and masterly inactivity [during the French Revolution].

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

A vice utterly at variance with the happiness of him who harbors it, and, as such, condemned by self-love.

The Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a wise and masterly inactivity.

The feminine graces of Madame de Sevigne's genius are exquisitely charming; but the philosophy and eloquence of Madame de Stael are above the distinction of sex.

Those who differ most from the opinions of their fellow men are the most confident of the truth of their own.

Those who preached faith, or in other words a pure mind, have always produced more popular virtue than those who preached good acts, or the mere regulation of outward works.

The frivolous work of polished idleness.

Every fiction since Homer has taught friendship, patriotism, generosity, contempt of death. These are the highest virtues; and the fictions which taught them were therefore of the highest, though not of unmixed, utility.

It is not because we have been free, but because we have a right to be free, that we ought to demand freedom. Justice and liberty have neither birth nor race, youth nor age.

Praise is the symbol which represents sympathy, and which the mind insensibly substitutes for its recollection and language.

The wealth of society is its stock of productive labor.