"I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others."
"Truth is the first object."
"A library book ... is not, then, an article of mere consumption, but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, is their only capital."
"It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read."
"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."
"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong."
"Neither believe nor reject anything because any other person's rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven."
"He is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad."
"It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately."
"When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred."
"It is rare that the public sentiment decides immorally or unwisely, and the individual who differs from it ought to distrust and examine well his own opinion."
"It behooves our citizens to be on their guard, to be firm in their principles, and full of confidence in themselves. We are able to preserve our self- government if we will but think so."
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others."
"A republic will avoid war unless the avoidance might create conditions that are worse than warfare itself. Sometimes, the dispositions of those who choose to make themselves our enemies leaves us no choice."
"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."
"Your sect [the Jews] by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal point of religious insolence, inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble and practised by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to this vice, protecting our religions, as they do our civil rights, by putting all on equal footing. But more remains to be done."
"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."
"Delay is preferable to error."
"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own persuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."
"While prudence will endeavor to avoid this issue of war, bravery will prepare to meet it."
"It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation, which give happiness."
"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost."
"I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious."