Benjamin Franklin: “Our possessions there deserve our greatest care and attention.”

To strangers he was cold and reserved; but where he was intimate, no man indulged to more pleasantry and good humour.

I wish old England were as happy in its government, but I do not see it.

It is comfortable to have a good opinion of one's self, and of every thing that belongs to us, to think one's own religion, king, and wife, the best of all possible wives, kings, and religions.

It is with a melancholy regret I think of his death; but to death we are all bound by the irreversible order of nature, and in looking forward to it, there is comfort in being able to reflect--that we have not lived in vain, and that all…