No other depositories of power [but the people themselves] have ever yet been found, which did not end in converting to their own profit the earnings of those committed to their charge.

The greatest honor of a man is in doing good to his fellow men, not in destroying them.

There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.

If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged.

It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt.

Do not write me studied letters but ramble as you please.

Everything is useful which contributes to fix the principles and practices of virtue.