Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty.
Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.
Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.
Honor is truly sacred, but holds a lower rank in the scale of moral excellence than virtue. Indeed the former is part of the latter, and consequently has not equal pretensions to support a frame of government productive of human happiness.
Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.
Make Things rather than Persons the subjects of conversations.
The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.
No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.
You may have the bishop pair but I have the ultimate advantage; I am the better player!
When you see a good move, sit on your hands and find a better one.
Politics are a labyrinth without a clue.
All great changes are irksome to the human mind, especially those which are attended with great dangers and uncertain effects.
They worry one another like mastiffs, scrambling for rank and pay like apes for nuts.
Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.
I wish I could lay down beside her and die too.
We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it.
Everything in life should be done with reflection.
Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good, but never assume to comprehend.
I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.
When legislature is corrupted, the people are undone.