Your Own Reason Is The Only Oracle

The Greatest Calamity Which Could Befall Us Would Be Submission To A Government Of Unlimited Powers.

We Are Completely Saddled And Bridled, And... The Bank Is So Firmly Mounted On Us That We Must Go Where It Will Guide.

Our Country Is Too Large To Have All Its Affairs Directed By A Single Government. Public Servants At Such A Distance, And From Under The Eye Of Their Constituents, Must, From The Circumstance Of Distance, Be Unable To Administer And Overlook All The Details Necessary For The Good Government Of The Citizens; And The Same Circumstance, By Rendering Detection Impossible To Their Constituents, Will Invite Public Agents To Corruption, Plunder And Waste.

Men Are Disposed To Live Honestly, If The Means Of Doing So Are Open To Them.

I View Great Cities As Pestilential To The Morals, The Health And The Liberties Of Man. True, They Nourish Some Of The Elegant Arts; But The Useful Ones Can Thrive Elsewhere; And Less Perfection In The Others, With More Health, Virtue And Freedom, Would Be My Choice.