Quotes from John Jay

No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent.

Those who own the country ought to govern it.

No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent.

Distrust naturally creates distrust, and by nothing is good will and kind conduct more speedily changed.

Among the strange things of this world, nothing seems more strange than that men pursuing happiness should knowingly quit the right and take a wrong road, and frequently do what their judgments neither approve nor prefer.

Among the many objects to which a wise and free people find it necessary to direct their attention, that of providing for their safety seems to be the first.

The wise and the good never form the majority of any large society and it seldom happens that their measures are uniformly adopted.... [All that wise and good men can do is] to persevere in doing their duty to their country and leave the consequences to him who made men only; neither elated by success, however great, nor discouraged by disappointments however frequent or mortifying.

It is too true, however disgraceful it may be to human nature, that nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it.

Those who own the country ought to govern it.

We must go home to be happy, and our home is not in this world. Here we have nothing to do but our duty.

Too many in your state [Pennsylvania], as in this [New York], love pure democracy dearly. They seem not to consider that pure democracy, like pure rum, easily produces intoxication, and with it a thousand mad pranks and fooleries.

Providence has given to our people the choice of their ruler, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. John Jay First Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.