The human character, we believe, requires in general constant and immediate control to prevent its being biased from right by the seductions of self-love.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

It [appears] that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience [has] shown that, even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, "never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith."

Peace, that glorious moment in time when everyone stops and reloads.

I apprehend... that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse.