The contest is not between us and them, but between good and evil, and if those who would fight evil adopt the ways of evil, evil wins.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man.

It is Mortifying to suppose it possible that a people able and zealous to contend with the Enemy should be reduced to fold their Arms for want of the means of defence; yet no resources that we know of, ensure us against this event.

A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the highest virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.