I despair of ever receiving the same degree of pleasure from the most exalted performances of genius which I felt in childhood from pieces which my present judgment regards as trifling and contemptible.

In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy function.

Religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.

What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.

There is a courageous wisdom; there is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution but of fear.

My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron.

Greater mischief happens often from folly, meanness, and vanity than from the greater sins of avarice and ambition.