"The nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one."

"Real firmness is good for anything strut is good for nothing."

"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself and can never be erased."

"Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others."

"Let thoughts come and go like clouds across an undisturbed autumn sky. Reflect upon this whenever doubt clouds your horizon."

"Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me."

"Stillness is not emptiness; it is the presence of unencumbered clarity. Such is the immutable nature of understanding."

"There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast."