No country and no people can be free and ignorant at the same time.

It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use of reason as to administer medication to the dead.

An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second.

Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.

Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man.

The contradictory experiments of chemists leave us at liberty to conclude what we please. My conclusion is, that art has not yet invented sufficient aids to enable such subtle bodies [air, light, &c.] to make a well-defined impression on organs as blunt as ours; that it is laudable to encourage investigation but to hold back conclusion.

To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union.