Don't adopt them, hear them and compare them with your own.

I would have you think for yourself, for I am an old man now and sometimes I distrust my powers of mind.
"The state of this country you, in your situation, ought to be thoroughly acquainted with.

It is a very perilous one.

Its prosperity, its integrity, nay its existence as a first-rate power, hangs by a thread, and that thread but little better and stronger than a cotton one.

_Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat_.