I do verily believe that a single, consolidated government would become the most corrupt government on the earth.

Nothing can be believed but what one sees, or has from an eye witness.

I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object.

We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the liberties of the seas than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties of mankind. The object is the same, to draw to themselves the power, the wealth and the resources of other nations.

If I am to meet with a disappointment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall have to wear it off.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

It is (our) duty . . . to pay especial attention to the principles of government which shall be inculcated therein (at the University), and to provide that none shall be inculcated which are incompatible with those on which the Constitutions of this State, and of the United States were genuinely based, in the common opinion; and for this purpose it may be necessary to point out specially where these principles are to be found legitimately developed.