"I have a notion that we might all of us live much happier than we now do, and with half the labour."
"A notion, indeed, and nothing but a notion. But if you paid a little less attention to the country at large, and a little more to your own habits, you and your poor wife and little ones might live happier than you do, there is little doubt."
"We seem to be all wrong in religious matters. Instead of being brought up to particular opinions, every one, young and old, ought to be left at liberty to think as he pleases."
"And to do as he pleases, too, I suppose? Oh! Harry Hatfield. Some day or other, if you keep a little closer to your shopboard, you may shine as a tailor, but you are not likely to become a star in any other calling."
"Then with regard to property; it stands to reason that if the hundred thousand pounds possessed by the rich man were to be divided into a hundred parts, it would make a hundred men comfortable and happy instead of one."
"All housebreakers and highwaymen, I should think, reason in the same way."
"It costs the country millions a year to keep up the gaols and the policemen: every penny of this might be saved."
"Ay, and the land might be overrun with rogues, and the country become a bear-garden."
"The national debt ought to be wiped away at once——it is a disgrace to the nation."
"And there is a debt scored up on the door there that is a disgrace to one Harry Hatfield——I suppose you would wipe that away too."