Trial by jury is part of that bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.

The failure of one thing is repaired by the success of another.

The private buildings [of Virginia] are very rarely constructed of stone or brick; much the greatest proportion being of scantlingand boards, plastered with lime. It is impossible to devise things more ugly, uncomfortable, and happily more perishable.

I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet.

Difficulties indeed sometimes arise; but common sense and honest intentions will generally steer through them.

I have been long sensible that while I was endeavoring to render our country the greatest of all services, that of regenerating the public education, and placing our rising generation on the level of our sister states (which they have proudly held heretofore), I was discharging the odious function of a physician pouring medicine down the throat of a patient insensible of needing it.

The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters.