To please everybody is impossible; were I to undertake it, I should probably please nobody.

Every action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those present.

The consciousness of having discharged that duty which we owe to our country is superior to all other considerations.

The executive branch of this government never has, nor will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity.

While all men within our territories are protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of their consciences; it is rationally to be expected from them in return, that they will [demonstrate] the innocence of their lives and the beneficence of their actions; for no man, who is profligate in his morals, or a bad member of the civil community, can possibly be a true Christian, or a credit to his own religious society.

Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.

It is absolutely necessary... for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders.