The Diminution Of Public Virtue Is Usually

Were The Talents And Virtues, Which Heaven Has Bestowed On Men, Given Merely To Make Then More Obedient Drudges, To Be Sacrificed To The Follies And Ambition Of A Few? Or, Were Not The Noble Gifts So Equally Dispensed With A Divine Purpose And Law, That They Should As Nearly As Possible Be Equally Exerted, And The Blessings Of Providence Be Equally Enjoyed By All?

Give Credit To Whom Credit Due.

In Short, It Is The Greatest Absurdity To Suppose It In The Power Of One, Or Any Number Of Men, At The Entering Into Society, To Renounce Their Essential Natural Rights, Or The Means Of Preserving Those Rights; When The Grand End Of Civil Government, From The Very Nature Of Its Institution, Is For The Support, Protection, And Defence Of Those Very Rights; The Principal Of Which, As Is Before Observed, Are Life, Liberty, And Property.

Shame On The Men Who Can Court Exemption From Present Trouble And Expense At The Price Of Their Own Posterity's Liberty!

We May Look Up To Armies For Defence, But Virtue Is Our Best Security. It Is Not Possible That Any State Should Long Remain Free, Where Virtue Is Not Supremely Honord.