“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.”

“Nothing is more likely than that [the] enumeration of powers is defective. This is the ordinary case of all human works. Let us then go on perfecting it by adding by way of amendment to the Constitution those powers which time and trial show are still wanting”

“Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.”

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”

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

“A machine for making revolutions is doing precisely the wrong thing at just the right time.”

“Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.”

“Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.”

“...never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting warm, becoming rude, & shooting one another. ... When I hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of argument to one opinion? ... There are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first is of young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details & modifications which a further progress would bring to their knoledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered & rude men in society, who have taken up a passion for politics. ... Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal.”

“I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”

“How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!” 

“Courts love the people always, as wolves do the sheep”

“The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.”

“Good wine is a necessity of life for me. ”

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