“Of all machines, the human heart is the most complicated and inexplicable.”

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”

“The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. . . . [are] the sole objects of all legitimate government.

“no people can be both ignorant and free.”

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” 

“The most fortunate of us all in our journey through life frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which greatly afflict us. To fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be one of the principal studies and endeavors of our lives.”

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

“If all be true that I do think, there are five reasons we should drink. Good friends, good times, or being dry, or lest we should be by and by, or any other reason why”

“We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church.”

“It is the duty of every American citizen to take part in a vigorous debate on the issues of the day.”

“I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”

“The inquisition of public opinion overwhelms in practice the freedom asserted by the laws in theory.”

“New York, like London, seems to be a cloacina [toilet] of all the depravities of human nature.”