Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.

There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents; for with these it would belong to the first class

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.