“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”

“It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.”

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

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”

“I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expense than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county, to consist of a few well-chosen books, to be lent to the people of the country under regulations as would secure their safe return in due time.”

“We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the liberties of the seas than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties of mankind. The object is the same, to draw to themselves the power, the wealth and the resources of other nations.”

“Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity.”