There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.

I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them. ... This has in a great degree been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit.

I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern.

Excessive taxation . . . will carry reason & reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election.

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind.

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

The sun has not caught me in bed in fifty years.