The religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principles of resistance: it is the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the Protestant religion.
You will not think it unnatural that those who have an object depending, which strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat inclining to superstition.
The marketplace obliges men, whether they will or not, in pursuing their own selfish interests, to connect the general good with their own individual success.
One source of the sublime is infinity.
Nothing so effectually deadens the taste of the sublime as that which is light and radiant.
The truly sublime is always easy, and always natural.
Whenever government abandons law, it proclaims anarchy.
Magnificence is likewise a source of the sublime. A great profusion of things which are splendid or valuable in themselves is magnificent. The starry heaven, though it occurs so very frequently to our view, never fails to excite an idea of grandeur.
The moment you abate anything from the full rights of men to each govern himself, and suffer any artificial positive limitation upon those rights, from that moment the whole organization of government becomes a consideration of convenience.
The same sun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed ambition.
The poorest being that crawls on earth, contending to save itself from injustice and oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God and man.
There ought to be system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.
When slavery is established in any part of the world, those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom.
The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men.
My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron.
I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard than in the tomb of the Capulets.
Circumspection and caution are part of wisdom.
Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding.
You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.
Where two motives, neither of them perfectly justifiable, may be assigned, the worst has the chance of being preferred.