I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
I cannot live without books.
We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.
Health is worth more than learning.
No instance exists of a person's writing two languages perfectly. That will always appear to be his native language which was most familiar to him in his youth.
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.
No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.
I read no newspaper now but Ritchie's, and in that chiefly the advertisements, for they contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.