I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.

I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.

No nation is drunken where wine is cheap, and none sober where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage

Of all exercises, walking is the best.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.

I thank heaven that the 4th. of July is over. It is always a day of great fatigue to me, and of some embarrassments from improper intrusions and some from unintended exclusions.