JUNIUS—pseudonym of unknown political writer in England (1769-1772)
Ancestry
He that can only boast of a distinguished lineage, boasts of that which does not belong to himself; but he that lives worthily of it is always held in the highest honor.
Assertions
Assertion, unsupported by fact, is nugatory.—Surmise and general abuse, is however elegant language, ought not to pass for truth.
It is an impudent kind of sorcery to attempt to blind us with the smoke, without convincing us that the fire has existed.
Bigotry
When once a man is determined to believe, the very absurdity of the doctrine does but confirm him in his faith.
Compassion
Compassion to an offender who has grossly violated the laws, is, in effect, a cruelty to the peaceable subject who has observed them.
Conduct
The integrity of men is to be measured by their conduct, not by their professions.
Cowardice
It is the coward who fawns upon those above him.—It is the coward who is insolent whenever he dares be so.
Credulity
Some men are bigoted in politics, who are infidels in religion.—Ridiculous credulity!
Critics
It behooves the minor critic, who hunts for blemishes, to be a little distrustful of his own sagacity.
Cunning
In a great business there is nothing so fatal as cunning management.
Despotism
All despotism is bad; but the worst is that which works with the machinery of freedom.
Discussion
Gratuitous violence in argument betrays a conscious weakness of the cause, and is usually a signal of despair.
Evils
The lives of the best of us are spent in choosing between evils.
Generosity
How much easier it is to be generous than just! Men are sometimes bountiful who are not honest.
Independence
Let all your views in life be directed to a solid, however moderate, independence; without it no man can be happy, nor even honest.
Insensibility
A thorough and mature insensibility is rarely to be acquired but by a steady perseverance in infamy.
Insult
Oppression is more easily borne than insult.
Injuries may be atoned for and forgiven; but insults admit of no compensation; they degrade the mind in its own esteem, and force it to recover its level by revenge.
Interest
It is more than possible, that those who have neither character nor honor, may be wounded in a very tender part, their interest.
Jesting
Be not affronted at a jest; if one throw ever so much salt at thee thou wilt receive no harm unless thou art raw and ulcerous.
Judgment
It is a maxim received in life that, in general, we can determine more wisely for others than for ourselves.—The reason of it is so clear in argument that it hardly wants the confirmation of experience.
Knavery
After long experience in the world, I affirm, before God, that I never knew a rogue who was not unhappy.
A very honest man, and a very good understanding, may be deceived by a knave.
Lawyers
As to lawyers, their profession is supported by the indiscriminate defense of right and wrong.
Opinion
As for the differences of opinion upon speculative questions, if we wait till they are reconciled, the action of human affairs must be suspended forever.—But neither are we to look for perfection in any one man, nor for agreement among many.
Opposition
The coldest bodies warm with opposition; the hardest sparkle in collision.
Patriotism
I have learned by much observation, that nothing will satisfy a patriot but a place.
Perverseness
When once a man is determined to believe, the very absurdity of the doctrine confirms him in his faith.
Politics
The violation of party faith, is, of itself, too common to excite surprise or indignation.—Political friendships are so well understood that we can hardly pity the simplicity they deceive.
Popularity
A generous nation is grateful even for the preservation of its rights, and willingly extends the respect due to the office of a good prince into an affection for his person.
Precedent
One precedent creates another.—They soon accumulate, and constitute law.—What yesterday was fact, today is doctrine.—Examples are supposed to justify the most dangerous measures; and where they do not suit exactly, the defect is supplied by analogy.
Press
Let it be impressed upon your minds, let it be instilled into your children, that the liberty of the press is the palladium of all the civil, political, and religious rights.
Punishment
Even legal punishments lose all appearance of justice, when too strictly inflicted on men compelled by the last extremity of distress to incur them.
Roguery
After long experience of the world, I affirm before God, that I never knew a rogue who was not unhappy.
Self-Will
An obstinate, ungovernable self-sufficiency plainly points out to us that state of imperfect maturity at which the graceful levity of youth is lost and the solidity of experience not yet acquired.
Superstition
Liberal minds are open to conviction. Liberal doctrines are capable of improvement. There are proselytes from atheism; but none from superstition.
Sympathy
It is an eternal truth in the political as well as the mystical body, that "where one member suffers, all the members suffer with it."
Understanding
I hold myself indebted to any one from whose enlightened understanding another ray of knowledge communicates to mine.—Realty to inform the mind is to correct and enlarge the heart.
Vanity
Vanity indeed is a venial error; for it usually carries its own punishment with it.
Vice
To attack vices in the abstract, without touching persons, may be safe fighting, but it is fighting with shadows.
The vices operate like age; bringing on disease before its time, and in the prime of youth they leave the character broken and exhausted.
