Legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no l...
I like the dreams for the future better than the history of the past.
If I could not go to Heaven but with a party I would not go there at all.
Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
I am mortified to be told that in the United States of America the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry and of criminal inquiry too.
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...
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of re...
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 would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it.
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.
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...
The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
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.
I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.
The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
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...
The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.
. . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at...