“It is while we are young that the habit of industry is formed. If not then, it never is afterward.”

“[It is a] happy truth that man is capable of self-government, and only rendered otherwise by the moral degradation designedly superinduced on him by the wicked acts of his tyrant.”

“I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living.”

“Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying.”

“If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done before.”

“The vote being passed, altho' further observn on it was out of order, he could not refrain from rising and expressing his satisfaction and concluded by saying "there is but one word, Mr. President, in the paper which I disapprove, & that is the word Congress," on which Ben Harrison rose and said "there is but on word in the paper, Mr. President, of which I approve, and that is the word Congress.”

“Delay is preferable to error.”

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

“That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.”

“Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.”

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

“Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them.”

“...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.”

“The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.”

“All, all dead: and ourselves left alone amidst a new generation whom we know not, and who know not us.”