I enclose to you a copy of the declaration of independence as agreed to by the House, and also, as originally framed. You will judge whether it is the better or worse for the Critics.

Can one generation bind another, and all others, in succession forever? I think not. The Creator has made the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powers can only belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter endowed with will...Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.

It is a principle that the right to a thing gives a right to the means without which it could not be used, that is to say, that the means follow their end.

When tempted to do any thing in secret, ask yourself if you would do it in public.

The happiest hours of my life have been spent in the flow of affection among friends.

Speaking one day to Monsieur de Buffon, on the present ardor of chemical inquiry, he affected to consider chemistry but as cookery, and to place the toils of the laboratory on the footing with those of the kitchen. I think it, on the contrary, among the most useful of sciences, and big with future discoveries for the utility and safety of the human race.