Trial by jury is part of the bright constellation which leads to peace, liberty and safety.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

If some period be not fixed, either by the Constitution or by practice, to the services of the First Magistrate, his office, though nominally elective, will, in fact, be for life, and that will soon degenerate into an inheritance.

What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals.

No man has done everything he can who has done only his best.

Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous. . . .

When the course of events shall have removed you to distant scenes of action where laurels not nurtured with the blood of my country may be gathered, I shall urge sincere prayers for your obtaining every honor and preferment which may gladden the heart of a soldier.