Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known and seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men.

A mind always employed is always happy.

Many of the opposition [to the new Federal Constitution] wish to take from Congress the power of internal taxation. Calculation has convinced me that this would be very mischievous.

I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude

I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is the most unfit man I know for such a place.

History by apprising them [the people] of the past will enable them to judge of the future. . . . It will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men: it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.