An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

One precedent in favor of power is stronger than a hundred against it.

If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the bloodstained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern.

What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals.

With nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties.

We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form and to any people whatever.