“The care of human life and happiness, and their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of a good government.”

“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.” 

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.”

“Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.”

“A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.”

“Was the government to prescribe us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now."

“The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.”

“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”

“When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.”

“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.”

“Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.”

“...as we advance in life these things fall off one by one , and I suspect we are left with only Homer and Virgil, perhaps with only Homer alone.”

“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it”

“The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money”

“I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.”