In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed and the boldest staggered.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Not men but measures a sort of charm by which many people get loose from every honorable engagement.

But a good patriot, and a true politician, always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition, to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Everything else is vulgar in the conception, perilous in the execution.

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.

Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment.

Ambition can creep as well as soar.