There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters

If the true spark of religious and civil liberty be kindled, it will burn.

On the other hand, the cultivation of the religious sentiment represses licentiousnessinspires respect for law and order, and gives strength to the whole social fabric, at the same time that it conducts the human soul upward to the Author of its being.

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.

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

Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever her temple stands, and so long as it is duly honored, there is a foundation for general security, general happiness, and the improvement and progress of our race.

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