We owe gratitude to France, justice to England, good will to all, and subservience to none ... it was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

The benefit of even limited monopolies is too doubtful, to be opposed to that of their general suppression.

We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education.

among the values of classical learning I estimate the Luxury of reading the Greek & Roman authors in all the beauties of their originals ... I think myself more indebted to my father for this, than for all the other luxuries his cares and affections have placed within my reach.

An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.

But under the beaming, constant and almost vertical sun of Virginia, shade is our Elysium. In the absence of this no beauty of the eye can be enjoyed.