“Necessity has no law.”
“Make the iron hot by striking it.”
“A few honest men are better than numbers.”
“He who stops being better stops being good.”
“Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.”
“Put your trust in God and keep your powder dry.”
“No man rises so high as he knows not whither he goes.”
“I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”
“Do not trust to the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged.”
“What is all our histories, but God showing himself, shaking and trampling on everything that he has not planted.”
“You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
“The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. If they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies.”
“I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else.”
“Mr. Lely, I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all; but remark all these roughnesses, pimples, warts, and everything as you see me, otherwise I will never pay a farthing for it.”