Must a government be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence?

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction ... nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot.

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

The Presidency, even to the most experienced politicians, is no bed of roses; and [Zachary] Taylor like others, found thorns within it. No human being can fill that station and escape censure.

Bad promises are better broken than kept.