Silence Is Golden But When It Threatens

I Cannot Stand Forward, And Give Praise Or Blame To Any Thing Which Relates To Human Actions, And Human Concerns, On A Simple View Of The Subject As It Stands Stripped Of Every Relation, In All The Nakedness And Solitude Of Metaphysical Abstraction. Circumstances (which With Some Gentlemen Pass For Nothing) Give In Reality To Every Political Principle Its Distinguishing Colour, And Discriminating Effect. The Circumstances Are What Render Every Civil And Political Scheme Beneficial Or Noxious To Mankind.

It Is Undoubtedly The Business Of Ministers Very Much To Consult The Inclinations Of The People, But They Ought To Take Great Care That They Do Not Receive That Inclination From The Few Persons Who May Happen To Approach Them.

In A Free Country Every Man Thinks He Has A Concern In All Public Matters,--that He Has A Right To Form And A Right To Deliver An Opinion On Them. This It Is That Fills Countries With Men Of Ability In All Stations.

The Superfluities Of A Rich Nation Furnish A Better Object Of Trade Than The Necessities Of A Poor One. It Is The Interest Of The Commercial World That Wealth Should Be Found Everywhere.

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