Do not doubt, sir, that such a task would have required more patience than genius.

With the principles of social economy which I have analyzed, I would have had only to break the ground, and follow the furrow.

The critic of laws finds nothing more difficult than to determine justice: the labor alone would have been longer.

Oh, if I had pursued this glittering prospect, and, like the man of the burning bush, with inspired countenance and deep and solemn voice, had presented myself some day with new tables, there would have been found fools to admire, boobies to applaud, and cowards to offer me the dictatorship; for, in the way of popular infatuations, nothing is impossible.
But, sir, after this monument of insolence and pride, what should I have deserved in your opinion, at the tribunal of God, and in the judgment of free men?
Death, sir, and eternal reprobation! I therefore spoke the truth as soon as I saw it, waiting only long enough to give it proper expression.

I pointed out error in order that each might reform himself, and render his labors more useful.