The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
George Washington

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.
George Washington

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.
George Washington

They do not love that do not show their love.
William Shakespeare

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
William Shakespeare

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
William Shakespeare

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
William Shakespeare

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.
William Shakespeare

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.
William Shakespeare

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.
William Shakespeare

We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from... Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.
William Shakespeare

Lawless are they that make their wills their law.
William Shakespeare

Men shut their doors against a setting sun.
William Shakespeare

Like as the waves make towards the pebbl'd shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.
William Shakespeare

People teach their dogs to sit; it's a trick. I've been sitting my whole life, and a dog has never looked at me as though he thought I was tricky.
Mitch Hedberg

Men have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David Thoreau

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Henry David Thoreau

Every people have gods to suit their circumstances.
Henry David Thoreau

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.
Henry David Thoreau

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.
Henry David Thoreau