Quote collection
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"My anxious recollections, my sympathetic feeling, and my best wishes are irresistibly excited whensoever, in any country, I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom."
"It is impossible to reason without arriving at a Supreme Being. Religion is as necessary to reason, as reason is to religion."
"A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils"
"In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars."
"No people can be bound to acknowledge the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the united States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency"
"The value of liberty was thus enhanced in our estimation by the difficulty of its attainment, and the worth of characters appreciated by the trial of adversity."
"I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy."
"There was not a member of the Constitutional Convention who had the least objection to what is contended for by the advocates for a Bill of Rights and trial by jury."
"No measure can be more desirable, whether viewed with an eye to its intrinsic importance, or to the general sentiment and wish of the Nation than to establish a systematic and effectual arrangement for the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt."
"Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die."
"It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights."
"We must take care always to keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, in a respectable defensive posture."
"As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit."
"The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."
"Men's minds are as variant as their faces. Where the motives of their actions are pure, the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature, are alike unavoidable."
"There is no restraining men's tongues or pens when charged with a little vanity."
"A man's intentions should be allowed in some respects to plead for his actions."
"A half-starved limping government, always moving upon crutches and tottering at every step."
"Jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public councils for the good government of the Union. In a words, the confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance . . . ."
"It is our policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world."