It is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws.

Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.

It is to be lamented that great characters are seldom without a blot.

Leadership is not only having a vision, but also having the courage, the discipline, and the resources to get you there.

I go to the chair of government with feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.

Providence has at all times been my only dependence, for all other resources seemed to have failed us.

Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for, I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country. - March 15, 1783