But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.
I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love.
It is on great occasions only, and after time has been given for cool and deliberate reflection, that the real voice of the people can be known.
No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was every more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm.
Undertake not what you cannot perform, but be careful to keep your promise.
Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society.
Peace with all the world is my sincere wish. I am sure it is our true policy, and am persuaded it is the ardent desire of the government.
Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.
I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed at the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.
Your love of liberty – your respect for the laws – your habits of industry – and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are the strongest claims to national and individual happiness.
No taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.
What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.
We ought to deprecate the hazard attending ardent and susceptible minds, from being too strongly, and too early prepossessed in favor of other political systems, before they are capable of appreciating their own.
We must take human nature as we find it, perfection falls not to the share of mortals.
To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.
Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.
Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket-book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.
Serious misfortunes, originating in misrepresentation, frequently flow and spread before they can be dissipated by truth.
I heard the bullets whistle – and believe me, there is something charming in the sound.
The future of this nation depends on the Christian training of our youth.