Quote collection
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"The fact is that one new idea leads to another, that to a third and so on through a course of time, until someone, with whom no one of these ideas was original, combines all together, and produces what is justly called a new invention."
"Our minds were circumscribed within narrow limits by an habitual belief that it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother country."
"Our fellow-citizens think they have a right to full information, in a case of such great concernment to them. It is their sweat which is to earn all the expenses of the war, and their blood which is to flow in expiation of the causes of it."
"One imputation in particular has been repeated till it seems as if some at least believed it: that I am an enemy to commerce. They admit me a friend of agriculture, and suppose me an enemy to the only means of disposing of its produce."
"No man has greater confidence than I have in the spirit of the people, to a rational extent. Whatever they can, they will."
"Never throw off the best affections of nature in the moment when they become most precious to their object; nor fear to extend you hand to save another, lest you should sink yourself."
"Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power."
"Man ... feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every day."
"Knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges."
"If our legislature does not heartily push our University [of Virginia] we must send our children for education to Kentucky [Transylvania College] or Cambridge [Harvard College]. The latter will return them to us as fanatics and tories, the former will keep them to add to their population."
"I have now the gloomy prospect of retiring from office loaded with serious debts, which will materially affect the tranquility of my retirement."
"I believe from what I have lately seen that we should be substantially safe were our Citizens Armed, but we have not as many Arms as we have Enemies in the State."
"Laws ... proportionate and mild should never be dispensed with. Let mercy be the character of the law-giver, but let the judge be a mere machine."
"I thank heaven that the 4th. of July is over. It is always a day of great fatigue to me, and of some embarrassments from improper intrusions and some from unintended exclusions."
"So much of the presidency is a matter of standing in the path of a Newsham Engine for Quenching Fires, opening one's mouth, and attempting to get a drink."
"Although we are free by the law, we are not so in practice."
"The happiest hours of my life have been spent in the flow of affection among friends."
"The President is bound to stop at the limits prescribed by our Constitution and law to the authorities in his hands, [and this] would apply in an occasion of peace as well as war."
"The precepts of philosophy and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. (Jesus) pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the regions of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head."
"The smell rewards the care."