I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural.

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.

Legislators invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

Wine from long habit has become an indispensable for my health

Every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact (casus non faederis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits. Without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them.