Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

no people can be both ignorant and free.

A great deal of love given to a few is better than a little to many.

The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.

[The purpose of a written constitution is] to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.

I like to see the people awake and alert.

The olive tree is surely the richest gift of Heaven. I can scarcely expect bread.