I find along with many virtues in my countrymen there is a jealousy, a soreness, and readiness to take offence, as if they were the most helpless and impotent of mankind, and yet a violence... and a boistrousness in their resentment, as if they had been puffed up with the highest prosperity and power. they will not only be served, but it must also be in their own way and on their own principles and even in words and language that they liked... which renders it very difficult for a plain unguarded man as I am to have anything to do with them or their affairs.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

We must not always judge of the generality of the opinion by the noise of the acclamation.

Nnothing tends more to the corruption of science than to suffer it to stagnate. These waters must be troubled, before they can exert their virtues.