The [president] has no particle of spiritual jurisdiction. . . .

When you assemble from your several counties in the Legislature, were every member to be guided only by the apparent interest of his county, government would be impracticable. There must be a perpetual accomodation and sacrifice of local advantage to general expediency.

Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.

People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.

Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.

What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws.

Those who do not industrialize become hewers of wood and hawkers of water