The truth is that the fall of Napoleon is the hardest blow that our taxing system ever felt. It is now impossible to make people believe that immense fleets and armies are necessary.

Men of integrity are generally pretty obstinate, in adhering to an opinion once adopted.

It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.

Never esteem men on account of their riches or their station. Respect goodness, find it where you may.

Learning consists of ideas, and not of the noise that is made by the mouth.

Freedom is not an empty sound; it is not an abstract idea; it is not a thing that nobody can feel. It means, - and it means nothing else, - the full and quiet enjoyment of your own property. If you have not this, if this be not well secured to you, you may call yourself what you will, but you are a slave.

Happiness, or misery, is in the mind. It is the mind that lives.