Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self evident, "that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living": that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it.

We must use a good deal of economy in our wood, never cutting down new, where we can make the old do.

The difficulty is no longer to find candidates for the offices, but offices for the candidates.

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.