Long accustomed to the use of European manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] are as incapable of returning to their habits of skinsand furs as we are, and find their wants the less tolerable as they are occasioned by a war [the American Revolution] the event of which is scarcely interesting to them.

I do not agree that an age of pleasure is no compensation for a moment of pain.

Bind them down by the chains of the Constitution where they can do no mischief.

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

I am tired of a life of contention, and of being the personal object for the hatred of every man, who hates the present state of things.

I have sworn upon the altar of God Eternal, hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

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.