The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is vanity; the rest is crime.

I cannot help concurring with the opinion that an absolute democracy, no more than absolute monarchy, is to be reckoned among the legitimate forms of government.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

Prudence is a quality incompatible with vice, and can never be effectively enlisted in its cause.

A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.

The introduction of Christianity, which, under whatever form, always confers such inestimable benefits on mankind, soon made a sensible change in these rude and fierce manners.

No government ought to exist for the purpose of checking the prosperity of its people or to allow such a principle in its policy.