Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us but is always the result of a good conscience good health occupation and freedom in all just pursuits.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.
I wish that all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance may be ever maintained among na...
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on office a rottenness begins in his conduct.
The habit of using ardent spirits by men in office has occasioned more injury to the public and more trouble to me than all other causes. Were I to commence my administration again the first questi...
I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work.
...never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting warm, becoming rude, & sho...
I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
I cannot live without books.
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor bre...
If God is just, I tremble for my country.
To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment . . . inflict on...