My opinion is that there would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest. The artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolts those who think for themselves, and who read in that system only what is really there.

Planting is one of my great amusements, and even of those things which can only be for posterity, for a Septuagenary has no right to count on any thing but annuals.

That one hundred and fifty lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected.

the boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them.

Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty.

Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.

A government regulating itself by what is wise and just for the many, uninfluenced by the local and selfish views of the few who direct their affairs, has not been seen, perhaps, on earth. Or if it existed for a moment at the birth of ours, it would not be easy to fix the term of its continuance. Still, I believe it does exist here in a greater degree than anywhere else; and for its growth and continuance... I offer sincere prayers.