If there be any among us who wish to dissolve the Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures.

The worst day in a man's life is when he sits down and begins thinking about how he can get something for nothing.

The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.

I do not agree that an age of pleasure is no compensation for a moment of pain.

That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations - to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements under all circumstances, to be open and generous, promoting in the long run even the interests of both