"Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind."

"War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies."

"Were we as eloquent as angels we still would please people much more by listening rather than talking."

"Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase."

"He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place."

"Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed."

"Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others."

"Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power. "

"The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little."

"The soundest argument will produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declamation; as a feather and a guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum."