One man with courage is a majority.
We have the wolf by the ears; and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.
One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.
When we see religion split into so many thousand of sects, and I may say Christianity itself divided into its thousands also, who are disputing, anathematizing and where the laws permit burning and to...
I agree with yours of the 22d that . but we cannot always do what is absolutely best. those with whom we act, entertaining different views, have the power and the right of carrying them into practice....
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments o...
Vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banki...
This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free t...
The hole and the patch should be commensurate.
I do not take a single newspaper nor read one a month and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.
How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!
Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.
...We are all Federalists,and we are all Republicans.
He who knows best knows how little he knows.