I have always considered marriage as the most interesting event of one’s life, the foundation of happiness or misery.
A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.
While just government protects all in their religious rites, true religion affords government its surest support.
Speak not evil of the absent for it is unjust.
We must consult our means rather than our wishes.
I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy.
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.
To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.
A sensible woman can never be happy with a fool.
Strive not with your superiors in argument, but always submit your judgment to others with modesty.
I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.
It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.
Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do – then do it with all your strength.
The nation which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.
The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.
Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.
The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved.
Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, laws, under no form of government, are better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness more effectually dispensed to mankind.