A perfect democracy is therefore the most shameless thing in the world.

The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.

In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind.

Man is by his constitution a religious animal.

The question is not whether you have a right to render people miserable, but whether it is not in your best interest to make them happy.

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.

Public calamity is a mighty leveller.