I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is. Behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forever.

Liberty consists in wholesome restraint

The law: it has honored us; may we honor it.

Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.

When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell on John Jay, it touched nothing less spotless than itself.

A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.

The most important thought that ever occupied my mind is that of my individual responsibility to God.