All persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust, and that they are to account for their conduct in that trust to the one great Master, Author, and Founder of society.
A great empire and little minds go ill together.
Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
Beauty is the promise of happiness.
There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men.
Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.
He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.
If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.
Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
All human laws are, properly speaking, only declaratory; they have no power over the substance of original justice.
All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.