It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.

I learn with great concern that [one] portion of our frontier so interesting, so important, and so exposed, should be so entirely unprovided with common fire-arms. I did not suppose any part of the United States so destitute of what is considered as among the first necessaries of a farm-house.

It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other.

The people cannot be all, and always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.

The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.

Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight.

Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.