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"As the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first to be laid aside when those liberties are firmly established." "Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company." "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence." "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." "I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education which I received from my mother." "I conceive that a knowledge of books is the basis on which all other knowledge rests." "I hope ever to see America among the foremost nation in examples of justice and liberality." "In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened." "Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire--conscience." "Let your heart feel for the affliction and distress of everyone." "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth." "My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit, who is going to the place of his execution." "My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty . . . it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein." "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States." "Nothing is more harmful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army superiority over another." "Our country's honor calls upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world." "The consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected will always continue to prompt me to promote the former by inculcating the practice of the latter." "The very idea of the power and right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government." "There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy." "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." "To err is natural; to rectify error is glory." "True friendship is a plant of slow growth." "We ought to be persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained."
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