The State is a poor, good beast who means the best: it means friendly.

Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdom which cannot help itself.

For splendor, there must somewhere be rigid economy. That the head of the house may go brave, the members must be plainly clad, and the town must save that the State may spend.

Friends should be like books, easy to find when you need them, but seldom used.

Every man beholds his human condition with a degree of melancholy. As a ship aground is battered by the waves, so man, imprisonedin mortal life, lies open to the mercy of coming events.

My own mind is the direct revelation which I have from God and far least liable to mistake in telling his will of any revelation.

Each man too is a tyrant in tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; and their trick is their natural defence. Jesuswould absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of power.