“There is nothing that gives a man consequence, and renders him fit for command, like a support that renders him independent of everybody but the State he serves.”
Letter to the president of Congress, Heights of Harlem (24 September 1776)
1770s
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George Washington 186
first President of the United States 1732–1799Related quotes

“It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.”
Vol. I, p. 53
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Letter to the Committee of Merchants in London (6 June 1766) http://www.virginia1774.org/GMMerchants.html

Pt. I, Ch. 2 : The Evanescence of Evil, concluding paragraph
Social Statics (1851)
Context: Man needed one moral constitution to fit him for his original state; he needs another to fit him for his present state; and he has been, is, and will long continue to be, in process of adaptation. And the belief in human perfectibility merely amounts to the belief that, in virtue of this process, man will eventually become completely suited to his mode of life.
Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity. Instead of civilization being artificial, it is part of nature; all of a piece with the development of the embryo or the unfolding of a flower. The modifications mankind have undergone, and are still undergoing, result from a law underlying the whole organic creation; and provided the human race continues, and the constitution of things remains the same, those modifications must end in completeness.

Chemische Briefe (1851) Full Text http://www.archive.org/details/chemischebriefe00liebuoft (quote's translation probably by Martin H. Fischer); quoted in Physical Chemistry in the Service of Medicine (1907), Wolfgang Pauli, p. 71, tr. by Martin H. Fischer. Full Text http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000951792.

Usez, n’abusez point; le sage ainsi l’ordonne.
Je fuis également Épictète et Pétrone.
L’abstinence ou l’excès ne fit jamais d’heureux.
"Cinquième discours: sur la nature de plaisir," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
Citas