I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.

Man is not made for the State but the State for man and it derives its just powers only from the consent of the governed.

Every Christian sect gives a great handle to Atheism by their general dogma that, without a revelation, there would not be sufficient proof of the being of god.

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.

The lamp of war is kindled here, not to be extinguished but by torrents of blood.

An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.

I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat mutual confidence and influence.