"It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one."

"It is better to be alone than in bad company."

"If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."

"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her."

"Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected."

"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."

"99% of failures come from people who make excuses."

"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."

"Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice."

"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

"Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages."

"Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth."

"Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession."

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."

"Worry is the intrest paid by those who borrow trouble."

"The harder the conflict, the greater the triumph."

"Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind, than on the externals in the world."

"A sensible woman can never be happy with a fool."

"Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company."

"I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built."

"If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War."

"The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved."

"Where are our Men of abilities? Why do they not come forth to save their Country?"

"To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country."

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few; and let those be well-tried before you give them your confidence."

"We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience."

"Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all"

"Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all"

"[death]...the abyss from where no traveler is permitted to return"

"Real men despise battle, but will never run from it."

"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country. - March 15, 1783"

"I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy."

"It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government."

"We must consult our means rather than our wishes."

"The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible."

"...overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty."

"If to please the people,we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The rest is in the hands of God."

"No punishment, in my opinion, is to great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin"

"A bad war is fought with a good mind."

"Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone."

"A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends."

"Be not glad at the misfortune of another, though he may be your enemy."

"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy"

"99% percent of failures are the ones who make excuses."

"It is absolutely necessary... for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders."

"Wherein you reprove another be unblameable yourself, for example is more prevalent than precepts."

"Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness."

"Strive not with your superiors in argument, but always submit your judgment to others with modesty."