We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest truest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

Virtue is not hereditary.

The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax

...for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.

Titles are like a magicians wand which circumscribe human facility and prevent us from living the lives of man.

Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

...the true greatness of a nation is founded on principles of humanity.