The Puritan did not stop to think; he recognized God in his soul, and acted.

Sin is not taken out of man, as Eve was out of Adam, by putting him to sleep.

Government is only a necessary evil, like other go-carts and crutches. Our need of it shows exactly how far we are still children. All governing overmuch kills the self-help and energy of the governed.

Revolutions never go backwards.

Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either form human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.

What the Puritans gave the world was not thought, but action.