Colonial Sense: Society-Lifestyle: Colonial Quotes

Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket-book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.	— George Washington
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.	— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ballet is a dance executed by the human soul.	— Alexander Pushkin
Banks properly established and conducted are highly useful to the business of the country, and will doubtless continue to exist in the States so long as they conform to their laws and are found to be safe and beneficial.	— Martin Van Buren
Base souls have no faith in great individuals.	— Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Bastard Freedom waves Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves.	— Thomas Moore
Be always sure you are right - then go ahead.	— Davy Crockett
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.	— Benjamin Franklin
Be careful what books you read, for as water tastes of the soil it runs through, so does the soul taste of the authors that a man reads.	— John Trapp
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.	— George Washington
Be free all worthy spirits, and stretch yourselves, for greatness and for height.	— George Chapman
Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. — Letter to John Alleyne, August 9, 1768	— Benjamin Franklin
Be mild and firm. Apply your best exertions to put us in a proper posture of defense.	— Edward Rutledge
Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice	— John Adams
Be not simply good - be good for something.	— Henry David Thoreau
Be polite to all, but intimate with few.	— Thomas Jefferson
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.	— Gustave Flaubert
Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.	— Benjamin Franklin
Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.	— Henry David Thoreau
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. — Attributed, referring to Henry VIII	— Thomas Wolsey
Beauty and folly are old companions.	— Benjamin Franklin
Beauty is but a flower, Which wrinkles will devour. — Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600	— Thomas Nashe
Beauty is only skin deep.	— Thomas Overbury
Beauty is the lover's gift.	— William Congreve
Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.	— Francis Bacon
Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.	— Edgar Allan Poe
Beauty seen is never lost, God's colors all are fast.	— John Greenleaf Whittier
Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense. — Cato	— Joseph Addison
Because my father was often absent on naval duty, my mother suffered me to do much as I pleased.	— John James Audubon
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.	— John Adams
Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. — An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787	— Noah Webster
Before me, even as behind, God is, and all is well.	— John Greenleaf Whittier
Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years.	— Henry David Thoreau
Before the formation of this Constitution, it had been affirmed as a self evident truth, in the declaration of Independence, very deliberately made by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled that, all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. This declaration of Independence was received and ratified by all the States in the Union, and has never been disannulled. May we not from hence conclude, that the doctrine of Liberty and Equality is an article in the political creed of the United States. — Address to the Legislature of Massachusetts, January 17, 1794	— Samuel Adams
Begot by butchers, but by bishops bred, How high his Highness holds his haughty head! — Attributed	— Thomas Wolsey
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.	— Benjamin Franklin
Being is the great explainer.	— Henry David Thoreau
Being too unhappy is weakness, being too happy is stupidity.	— Madeleine de Souvre
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.	— Thomas Paine
Believe me, than in half the creeds.	— Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Believe me, there exists no such dilemma as that in which a gentleman is placed when he is forced to reply to a blackguard.	— Edgar Allan Poe
Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it.	— William Penn
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and State. — Letter to a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, Connecticut, January 1, 1802	— Thomas Jefferson
Besides all this, if you are idle, and take to bad courses, you will hurt those of your brethren who are slaves, and do all in your power to prevent their being free.	— Jupiter Hammon
Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. — Federalist No. 48, February 1, 1788	— James Madison
Better not be at all than not be noble.	— Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Better the illusions that exalt us than ten thousand truths.	— Alexander Pushkin
Between Russia and the United States sentiments of good will continue to be mutually cherished.	— Martin Van Buren
Beware of all enterprises that require a new set of clothes — Walden	— Henry David Thoreau
Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.	— Benjamin Franklin
Beware the hobby that eats.	— Benjamin Franklin
Beware the wrath of a patient adversary.	— John C. Calhoun
Biography is one of the new terrors of death.	— John Arbuthnot
Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.	— Alexander Pope
Blest is that government where no art thrives. — Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600	— Thomas Nashe
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.	— Thomas Jefferson
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.	— Henry David Thoreau
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.	— Henry David Thoreau
Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics even more than by the manner in which they are treated.	— Henry David Thoreau
Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.	— Henry David Thoreau
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.	— Thomas Jefferson
Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming, as I doubt not you will do, to our established rules. That these rules shall be as equal as prudential considerations will admit, will certainly be the aim of our legislatures, general and particular. — Letter to Hugh White, May 2, 1801	— Thomas Jefferson
Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the Book?	— Red Jacket
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.	— John Adams
But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm... But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity. — Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788	— James Madison
But as the plan of the convention aims only at a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, EXCLUSIVELY delegated to the United States. — Federalist No. 32, January 3, 1788	— Alexander Hamilton
But even friendship like our heroes' Exist no more; for we've outgrown All sentiments and deem men zeroes-- Except of course ourselves alone. We all take on Napoleon's features, And millions of our fellow creatures Are nothing more to us than tools... Since feelings are for freaks and fools. Eugene, of course, had keen perceptions And on the whole despised mankind, Yet wasn't, like so many, blind; And since each rule permits exceptions, He did respect a noble few, And, cold himself, gave warmth its due.	— Alexander Pushkin
But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have been called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists	— Thomas Jefferson
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.	— Thomas Jefferson
But government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.	— Henry David Thoreau
But Hopes are Shy Birds flying at a great distance seldom reached by the best of Guns.	— John James Audubon
But how to raise a sum in the different States has been my greatest difficulty. — Letter from London (5 Feb 1797) to President George Washington, proposing benefits from building canals	— Robert Fulton
But I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free.	— William Henry Harrison
But I do mean to say, I have heard her declare, When at the same moment she had on a dress Which cost five hundred dollars, and not a cent less, And jewelry worth ten times more, I should guess, That she had not a thing in the wide world to wear!	— William Allen Butler
But I have the satisfaction, at the same time, to reflect that the impression to be made depends upon the consistency of the charge and the motives of the prosecutors.	— Robert Walpole
But I must think that an address to his majesty to remove one of his servants, without so much as alleging any particular crime against him, is one of the greatest encroachments that was ever made upon the prerogatives of the crown.	— Robert Walpole
But if we are to be told by a foreign Power ... what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little. — Letter to Alexander Hamilton, May 8, 1796	— George Washington
But it is almost impossible to communicate with them [one's spies in the enemy camp] and receive the information they possess ... Even when the general receives from his spies information of movements, he still knows nothing of those which may since have taken place, nor of what the enemy is going finally to attempt.	— Antoine-Henri Jomini
But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. — 1796 - Farewell Address	— George Washington
But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.	— Francis Bacon
But of all the views of this law none is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people the safe, as they are the ultimate, guardians of their own liberty. For this purpose the reading in the first stage, where they will receive their whole education, is proposed, as has been said, to be chiefly historical. History by apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views. — Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 14, 1781	— Thomas Jefferson
But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.	— Alexander Pope
But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.	— Thomas Paine
But the mild voice of reason, pleading the cause of an enlarged and permanent interest, is but too often drowned, before public bodies as well as individuals, by the clamors of an impatient avidity for immediate and immoderate gain. — Federalist No. 42, January 22, 1788	— James Madison
But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war. — Federalist No. 4	— John Jay
But this will not do, God will certainly punish you for stealing and for being unfaithful.	— Jupiter Hammon
But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations...This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution. — Letter to H. Niles, February 13, 1818	— John Adams
But what is Freedom? Rightly understood, A universal licence to be good. — Liberty	— Hartley Coleridge
But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years. — September 6, 1789	— Thomas Jefferson
Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities.	— Benjamin Franklin
By blood a king, in heart a clown.	— Alfred, Lord Tennyson
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.	— Benjamin Franklin
By indignities men come to dignities.	— Francis Bacon
By one delay after another they spin out their whole lives, till there's no more future left for them. — “Fables of Æsop and other eminent mythologists: with morals and reflections”, p.400 (1714)	— Roger L'Estrange
By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty.	— Samuel Chase
By removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime.	— Benjamin Rush
By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the other, vice and servility, or hatred and revolt.	— James Madison
By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000 men - infantry, artillery, and cavalry.	— James Monroe
By these purchases the Indian title, with moderate reservations, has been extinguished to the whole of the land within the limits of the State of Ohio, and to a part of that in the Michigan Territory and of the State of Indiana.	— James Monroe