By the time you extended from New York to Virginia, you would be reduced to a string of drops not capable of hanging together; while we, by retreating from State to State, like a river turning back upon itself, would acquire strength in the same proportion as you lost it, and in the end be capable of overwhelming you.
From a letter during the American Revolution, this passage describes the strategic advantage of the American forces in a war of attrition against the British.
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Long experience however has shown, that reforms of this kind are not those which old governments wish to promote, and therefore it is to nations, and not to such governments, that these matters present themselves.
When a nation changes its opinion and habits of thinking, it is no longer to be governed as before; but it would not only be wrong, but bad policy, to attempt by force what ought to be accomplished by reason.
The object, in all such preliminary proceedings, is to find out what the general sense of a nation is, and to be governed by it.
When another nation shall join France, despotism and bad government will scarcely dare to appear.