Believing that I was born for the service of mankind, and regarding the care of the commonwealth as a kind of common property which, like the air and the water, belongs to everybody, I set myself to consider in what way mankind might be best served, and what service I was myself best fitted by nature to perform.

Studies perfect nature and are perfected still by experience.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.

Be so true to thyself, as thou be not false to others.

Acorns were good until bread was found.

Every person born in the USA is endowed with life, liberty, and a substantial share of the national debt.