We wish the happiness and prosperity of every nation.
Experience having long taught me the reasonableness of mutual sacrifices of opinion among those who are to act together for any common object, and the expediency of doing what good we can; when we cannot do all we would wish.
Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.
That peace, safety, and concord may be the portion of our native land, and be long enjoyed by our fellow-citizens, is the most ardent wish of my heart, and if I can be instrumental in procuring or preserving them, I shall think I have not lived in vain.
Public employment contributes neither to advantage nor happiness. It is but honorable exile from one’s family and affairs.
Any woodsman can tell you that in a broken and sundered nest, one can hardly find more than a precious few whole eggs. So it is with the family.
But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror.
The art of life is the art of avoiding pain; and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have been called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.
I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man.
The Giver of life gave it for happiness and not for wretchedness.
I sincerely pray that all the members of the human family may, in the time prescribed by the Father of us all, find themselves securely established in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and happiness.
An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental.
To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse.
Questions of natural right are triable by their conformity with the moral sense and reason of man.
The right to use a thing comprehends a right to the means necessary to its use, and without which it would be useless.
I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights.
Circumstances sometimes require, that rights the most unquestionable should be advanced with delicacy.