Considering the great importance to the public liberty of the freedom of the press, and the difficulty of submitting it to very precise rules, the laws have thought it less mischievous to give greater scope to its freedom than to the restraint of it.

I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid; and I find myself much the happier.

I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing.

When tempted to do any thing in secret, ask yourself if you would do it in public.

With the same honest views, the most honest men often form different conclusions.

Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.