“My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived; and as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet the common fate.”
On the Vice-Presidency of the United States, in a letter to Abigail Adams (19 December 1793).
1790s
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John Adams202
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Proclamation Regarding Nullification (10 December 1832).
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“A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.”
William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania
537-539
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I
Context: A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God's sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him.