The objects of this primary education . . . would be . . . to form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom public prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend.

Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.

One precedent in favor of power is stronger than a hundred against it.

Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.

Of all exercises, walking is the best.

The further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism.

May [our Declaration of Independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government... All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.