After eight years as President I have only two regrets: that I have not shot Henry Clay or hanged John C. Calhoun.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.

Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.

John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation I will secede your head from the rest of your body.

I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me.

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.

Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.

When you get in debt you become a slave.

But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.

All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.

Freemasonry is an institution calculated to benefit mankind.

Men in prayer give greater license to their unlawful desires than if they were telling jocular tales among their equals.

Poverty scrapes these homes down until they all look the same, and they all have in common the absence of things that ought to be there. I might as well have been at one place all my life.

A writer of fiction is really... a congenital liar who invents from his own knowledge or that of other men.

The Jeep is the only true American sports car.

The United States is the most innovative country in the world. But our leadership could slip away if we fail to properly fund primary, secondary and higher education.

See stars in the changing season and dance among them, shining.

Most of my decisions in life seem absent-minded but inevitable.

Come into my eyes, and look at me through them, for I have chosen a home far beyond what eyes can see.

The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.

All the wild-witches, those most notable ladies For all their broom-sticks and their tears, Their angry tears, are gone.