I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe.... They are nations of eternal war.

One had rather have no opinion than a false one.

Heliotrope. To be sowed in the spring. A delicious flower, but I suspect it must be planted in boxes and kept in the house in the winter. The smell rewards the care.

Force cannot give right.

I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom & happiness of man.

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

[I]n Great-Britain it is said that their constitution relies on the house of commons for honesty, and the lords for wisdom; whichwould be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money, and if wisdom were hereditary.