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The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.
Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for 'tis 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.
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True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.
Few people have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
It is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.
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Nothing
can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline;
for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the
superiority over another.
Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.
As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.
How soon we forget history... Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it.
If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.
