Passion for fame: A passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by too confident a security.

Crimes lead into one another. They who are capable of being forgers, are capable of being incendiaries.

Nothing so effectually deadens the taste of the sublime as that which is light and radiant.

Facts are to the mind what food is to the body. On the due digestion of the former depend the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigor and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable companion in the commerce of human life, is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts.

Reflect how you are to govern a people who think they ought to be free, and think they are not. Your scheme yields no revenue; it yields nothing but discontent, disorder, disobedience; and such is the state of America, that after wading through up to your eyes in blood, you could only end up where you begun; that is, to tax where no revenue is to be found... all is confusion beyond it.

It is hard to say whether doctors of law or divinity have made the greater advances in the lucrative business of mystery.