I have always been afraid of banks.

If they [Mexicans] touch the hair of the head of one of our citizens, tell him [Commodore Dallas] to batter down and destroy their town and exterminate the inhabitants from the face of the earth!

Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.

I say to you never involve yourself in debt, and become no man's surety.

That those tribes [the Sac and Fox Indians] cannot exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizensis certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition.

People are my religion/Because I believe in them.

After eight years as President I have only two regrets: that I have not shot Henry Clay or hanged John C. Calhoun.