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

The moment that government appears at market, the principles of the market will be subverted.

To reach the height of our ambition is like trying to reach the rainbow; as we advance it recedes.

By this unprincipled facility of changing the state as often, and as much, and in as many ways as there are floating fancies or fashions, the whole chain and continuity of the commonwealth would be broken. No one generation could link with the other. Men would become little better than the flies of a summer.

To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants.