If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.

Every gentleman plays billiards, but someone who plays billiards too well, is no gentleman.

The law of self-preservation is higher than written law.

I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better pleased with sound sleep & a warmer berth below it encircled, with the society of neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth rather than with spies & sycophants ... I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office.

I could think of no worse example for nations abroad, who for the first time were trying to put free electoral procedures into effect, than that of the United States wrangling over the results of our presidential election, and even suggesting that the presidency itself could be stolen by thievery at the ballot box.

A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government.

Where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself.