the fact is that one new idea leads to another, that to a 3d and so on thro’ a course of time, until some one, with whom no one of these ideas was original, combines all together, and produces what is justly called a new invention.

our right may be doubted of mortgaging posterity for the expenses of a war in which they will have a right to say their interests were not concerned. it is incumbent on every generation to pay it’s own debts as it goes. a principle which, if acted on, would save one half the wars of the world.

would you believe Madam, that in [this 18th. centur]y, in France, und[er the reign of Louis XVI, they] are [at this mo]ment pulling down the circular wall of this superb remain [to pave a ro]ad? and that too from a hill which is itself an entire mass of stone just as fit, & more accessible. a...

Roman taste, genius & magnificence excite ideas

from Lyons to Nismes I have been nourished with the remains of Roman grandeur

my first wish is a restoration of our just rights

I am sincerely one of those, & would rather be in dependance on Gr. Br. properly limited than on any nation upon earth, or than on no nation. but I am one of those too who rather than submit to the right of legislating for us assumed by the British parl. & which late experience has shewn...

I am sorry the situation of our country should render it not eligible to you to remain longer in it. I hope the returning wisdom of Gr. Br. will e’er long put an end to this unnatural contest.

Then he had lived abroad and he had introduced into his own household many of what were called foreign ways. He ate with a silver fork when other people used steel. He would have his plate changed several times during dinner, a habit not observed, in those days, by country gentlemen generally ......

Thomas Jefferson could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play a violin.