The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expen...
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...
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...
I like the dreams for the future better than the history of the past.
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on office a rottenness begins in his conduct.
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
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.
I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endange...
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.
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...
I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it.
I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid pos...
If I could not go to Heaven but with a party I would not go there at all.
The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.
It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the...
I steer my bark with Hope in the head, leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail; but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.
The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.