Perfection is impossibility but striving for perfection is not. Do the best you can. That is what counts.
Make the most of the Indian Hemp Seed and sow it everywhere.
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.
We are either a United people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all maters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.
Where are our Men of abilities? Why do they not come forth to save their Country?
Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your reputation. Be not apt to relate news, if you know not the truth thereof. Speak no evil of the absent, for it is unjust. Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise. There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth, and pursue it steadily. Nothing but harmony, honesty, industry and frugality are necessary to make us a great and happy nation.
I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.
Tact is rubbing out another's mistake instead of rubbing it in.
The only thing I know for sure is how much I do not know.
Once you realize that there are no geniuses out there, you can think, "I can do that". One reason I've succeeded is that I have that naïve sense of entitlement.
That's what reading was for my mother, and became for me - a way to escape, a private time machine, a place that began with moral instruction but soon morphed into empathy and imagination.