We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe.

George Washington famously warned against … ‘ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear.

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.

Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it is a sign of a tractable and commendable nature; and in all cases of passion admit reason to govern.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

The great mass of our Citizens require only to understand matters rightly, to form right decisions.

If the cause is advanced, indifferent is it to me where or in what quarter it happens.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.

[T]he gradual extension of our settlements will as certainly cause the savage, as the wolf, to retire; both being beasts of prey, though they differ in shape.

I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.

Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.

Associate yourself with Men of good Quality if you Esteem your own Reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad Company.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

Much was to be done by prudence, much by conciliation, much by firmness.

Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.

Do not suffer your good nature […] to say yes when you ought to say no; remember that it is a public not a private cause that is to be injured or benefitted by your choice.

Experience has taught us, that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of a coercive power.