“Peace, that glorious moment in time when everyone stops and reloads.”

“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

“In matters of principal stand like a rock.”

“It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.”

“Freedom, the first-born of science.”

“Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.”

“I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet.”

“I consider him [Alexander von Humboldt] the most important scientist whom I have met.”

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

“Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred”

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

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

“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 earth belongs always to the living generations.”

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