To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.

My aim has been... to keep the United States... independent of all and under the influence of none.

At a distance from the theatre of action, truth is not always related without embellishment, and sometimes is entirely perverted, from a misconception of the causes which produce the effects that are the subjects of censure.

Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.

It is an old adage that honesty is the best policy-this applies to public as well as private life-to States as well as individuals.

I have never been a communicant.

To expect ... the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits, as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen. Men, who are familiarized to danger, meet it without shrinking; whereas troops unused to service often apprehend danger where no danger is.