Public offices were not made for private convenience.

All authority belongs to the people... In questions of power let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief with chains of the Constitution.

I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them. ... This has in a great degree been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit.

It would not be for the public good to have [a majority in Congress of one party] greater [than] two to one.

Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty.

We must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.

[I]t seems that the Cannibals of Europe are going to eat one another again. A war between Russia and Turkey is like the battle of the kite and snake; whichever destroys the other, leaves a destroyer the less for the world.