I could not do otherwise without transcending the limits prescribed by the Constitution for the President and without feeling that I might in some degree disturb the security which religion nowadays enjoys in this country in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.

Temporize not! It is always injurious.

I carried $5000 when I went to Washington. I returned with barely $90 in our pockets.

Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of high importance.

Corporations have neither bodies to kick, nor souls to damn.

I have never in my life seen a Kentuckian who didn't have a gun, a pack of cards, and a jug of whiskey.

As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending.