Government is a necessary evil

No nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance.

Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself.

I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God.

But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.

He who takes nature for his guide, is not easily beaten out of his argument

If men will permit themselves to think, as rational beings ought to think, nothing can appear more ridiculous and absurd, exclusive of all moral reflections, than to be at the expence of building navies, filling them with men, and then hauling them into the ocean, to try which can sink each other fastester. Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infintely more advantage than any victory with all its expence. But this, though it best answers the purpose of Nations, does not that of Court Governments, whose habited policy is pretence for taxation, places, and offices.