[M]y wish is, that the Convention may adopt no temporizing expedient, but probe the defects of the Constitution [i.e., the Articles of Confederation] to the bottom, and provide radical cures.

To please everybody is impossible; were I to undertake it, I should probably please nobody.

A lottery is the perfect tax...laid only upon the willing.

While I reiterate the professions of my dependence upon Heaven... I will observe that... no man who is profligate in his morals... can possibly be a true Christian.

A man's intentions should be allowed in some respects to plead for his actions.

Every post is honourable in which a man can serve his country.

And you will, by the dignity of your Conduct, afford occasion for Posterity to say, when speaking of the glorious example you have exhibited to Mankind, had this day been wanting, the World had never seen the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.