The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.

While the principles of our Constitution give just latitude to inquiry, every citizen faithful to it will deem embodied expressions of discontent and open outrages of law and patriotism as dishonorable as they are injurious

Responsibility is a tremendous engine in a free government.

We must use a good deal of economy in our wood, never cutting down new, where we can make the old do.

It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual.

My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!