We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.

To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted.

In a government framed for durable liberty, not less regard must be paid to giving the magistrate a proper degree of authority, to make and execute the laws with rigour, than to guarding against encroachments upon the rights of the community. As too much power leads to despotism, too little leads to anarchy, and both eventually to the ruin of the people.

Has it not. . . invariably been found that momentary passions, and immediate interests, have a more active and imperious control over human conduct than general or remote considerations of policy, utility and justice?

Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep.

The art of reading is to skip judiciously.

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