Ministers and merchants love nobody.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself.

Turning, then, from this loathsome combination of church and state, and weeping over the follies of our fellow men, who yield themselves the willing dupes and drudges of these mountebanks, I consider reformation and redress as desperate, and abandon them to the Quixotism of more enthusiastic minds.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants ... I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.