The spirit of commerce is frugality, economy, moderation, labor, ponderance, tranquillity, order, and rule. So long as this spirit subsides, the riches it produces have no bad effect. The mischief is when excessive wealth destroys the spirit of commerce, then it is that the conveniences of inequality... are felt.

Power ought to serve as a check to power.

Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.

There are bad examples which are worse than crimes; and more states have perished from the violation of morality than from the violation of law.

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.

For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.