Depend Upon It That The Lovers Of

Greater Mischief Happens Often From Folly, Meanness, And Vanity Than From The Greater Sins Of Avarice And Ambition.

A Disposition To Preserve, And An Ability To Improve, Taken Together, Would Be My Standard Of A Statesman.

The Science Of Constructing A Commonwealth Or Renovating It, Or Reforming It, Is...not To Be Taught A Priori...that Which In The First Instance Is Prejudicial May Be Excellent In Its Remoter Operation, And Its Excellence May Rise Even From The Ill Effects It Produces In The Beginning. The Reverse Also Happens; And Very Plausible Schemes, With Very Pleasing Commencements, Have Often Shameful And Lamentable Conclusions.

Those Who Have Been Once Intoxicated With Power, And Have Derived Any Kind Of Emolument From It, Even Though But For One Year, Never Can Willingly Abandon It. They May Be Distressed In The Midst Of All Their Power; But They Will Never Look To Anything But Power For Their Relief.

To Innovate Is Not To Reform.