He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.
The contest is not between Us and Them, but between Good and Evil, and if those who would fight Evil adopt the ways of Evil, Evil wins.
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional m...
A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take f...
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remed...
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of dista...
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.
The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities a...
My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separat...
All are dead, and ourselves left alone amidst a new generation whom we know not, and who know us not.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let h...
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.
I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.