All great changes are irksome to the human mind, especially those which are attended with great dangers and uncertain effects.

An honest, sensible, humane man, . . . laboring to do good rather than be rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modest simplicity . . . is really the most respectable man in society, [and] makes himself and all about him most happy.

The right of a nation to kill a tyrant, in cases of necessity, can no more be doubted, than to hang a robber, or kill a flea. But killing one tyrant only makes way for worse, unless the people have sense, spirit and honesty enough to establish and support a constitution guarded at all points against the tyranny of the one, the few, and the many.

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity

The people "have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge- I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers."

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart

If the way to do good to my country were to render myself popular, I could easily do it. But extravagant popularity is not the road to public advantage.