a government which cannot preserve the peace, is no government at all, and in that case we pay our money for nothing; - Thomas Paine

If the present generation, or any other, are disposed to be slaves, it does not lessen the right of the succeeding generation to be free.

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

There are certain circumstances, which, at the time of their happening, are a kind of riddles, and as every riddle is to be followed by its answer, so those kind of circumstances will be followed by their events, and those events are always the true solution. A considerable space of time may lapse between, and unless we continue our observations from the one to the other, the harmony of them will pass away unnoticed: but the misfortune is, that partly from the pressing necessity of some instant things, and partly from the impatience of our own tempers, we are frequently in such a hurry to make out the meaning of everything as fast as it happens, that we thereby never truly understand it; and not only start new difficulties to ourselves by so doing, but, as it were, embarrass Providence in her good designs.