I know not what treason is, if sapping and betraying the liberties of a people be not treason.

It is remarkable that men, when they differ in what they think considerable, will be apt to differ in almost everything else; their difference begets contradiction; contradiction begets heat; heat quickly rises into resentment, rage, and ill-will; thus they differ in affections, as they differ in judgment.

I think the first wisdom is to restrain the tongue.

In conversation avoid the extremes of forwardness and reserve.

All have the gift of speech, but few are possessed of wisdom.

Flee sloth; for the indolence of the soul is the decay of the body.

Some have said that it is not the business of private men to meddle with government--a bold and dishonest saying, which is fit to come from no mouth but that of a tyrant or a slave. To say that private men have nothing to do with government is to say that private men have nothing to do with their own happiness or misery; that people ought not to concern themselves whether they be naked or clothed, fed or starved, deceived or instructed, protected or destroyed.