No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.

"War," says Machiavelli, "ought to be the only study of a prince;" and by a prince he means every sort of state, however constituted. "He ought," says this great political doctor, "to consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes ability to execute military plans." A meditation on the conduct of political societies made old Hobbes imagine that war was the state of nature.

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

Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.

The science of constructing a commonwealth or renovating it, or reforming it, is...not to be taught a priori...That which in the first instance is prejudicial may be excellent in its remoter operation, and its excellence may rise even from the ill effects it produces in the beginning. The reverse also happens; and very plausible schemes, with very pleasing commencements, have often shameful and lamentable conclusions.

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.