“I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work.”

“The contest is not between Us and Them, but between Good and Evil, and if those who would fight Evil adopt the ways of Evil, Evil wins.”

“There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.”

“A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be.”

“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.” 

“I hope they pardoned them. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that i wish it to be always kept alive....I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.”

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

“There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.”

“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”

“the measure of society is how it treats the weakest members”

“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.”

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have

“That one generation of men in civil society have no right to make acts to bind another, is a truth that cannot be confused.”

“Good humor is one of the preservatives of our peace and tranquility”