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SOME FRUITS OF SOLITUDE
- Where the Reins of Government are too slack, there the Manners of the People are corrupted: And that destroys Industry, begets Effeminacy, and provokes Heaven against it.
- Oppression makes a Poor Country, and a Desperate People, who always wait an Opportunity to change.
- He that ruleth over Men, must be just, ruling in the Fear of God, said an old and a wise King.
- Envy disturbs and distracts Government, clogs the Wheels, and perplexes the Administration: And nothing contributes more to the Disorder, than a partial distribution of Rewards, and Punishments in the Sovereign.
- As it is not reasonable that Men should be compell’d to serve; so those that have Employments should not be endured to leave them humorously.
- Where the State intends a Man no Affront, he should not Affront the State.
A PRIVATE LIFE
- Private Life is to be preferr’d; the Honor and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it. The one is free and quiet, the other servile and noisy.
- It was a great Answer of the Shunamite Woman, I dwell among my own People.
- They that live of their own, neither need, nor often list to wear the Livery of the Publick.
- Their Subsistance is not during Pleasure; nor have they patrons to please or present.
- If they are not advanced, neither can they be disgraced. And as they know not the Smiles of Majesty, so they feel not the Frowns of Greatness; or the Effects of Envy.
- If they want the Pleasures of a Court, they also escape the Temptations of it.
- Private Men, in fine, are so much their own, that paying common Dues, they are Sovereigns of all the rest.
A PUBLICK LIFE
- Yet the Publick must and will be served; and they that do it well, deserve publick Marks of Honor and Profit.
