The Modes Of Speech Are Scarcely More

After All That Corrupt Poets, And More Corrupt Philosophers, Have Told Us Of The Blandishments Of Pleasure, And Of Its Tendency To Soften The Temper And Humanize The Affections, It Is Certain, That Nothing Hardens The Heart Like Excessive And Unbounded Luxury; And He Who Refuses The Fewest Gratifications To His Own Voluptuousness, Will Generally Be Found The Least Susceptible Of Tenderness For The Wants Of Others.

We Contrive To Make Revenge Itself Look Like Religion. We Call Down Thunder On Many A Head Under Pretence, That Those On Whom We Invoke It Are God's Enemies, When Perhaps We Invoke It Because They Are Ours.

Temptation Does Not Make The Sin, It Lies Ready In The Heart.

Commending A Right Thing Is A Cheap Substitute For Doing It, With Which We Are Too Apt To Satisfy Ourselves.

Luxury And Dissipation, Soft And Gentle As Their Approaches Are, And Silently As They Throw Their Silken Chains About The Heart, Enslave It More Than The Most Active And Turbulent Vices