"As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed."

"America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts."

"A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person."

"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

"The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world."

"The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty."

"Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors."

"It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

"A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States."

"As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights."

"Ambition must be made to counteract ambition."

"If we are to take for the criterion of truth the majority of suffrages, they ought to be gotten from those philosophic and patriotic citizens who cultivate their reason."

"The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself."

"A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them."

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary."

"Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power."

"The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state."

"What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?"

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

"The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted."

"To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression."

"Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty."

"We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties."

"The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money."

"Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government."

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."

"I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property."

"And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."

"I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment."

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."

"All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former."

"Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence."

"The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived."

"Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages."

"Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations."

"Philosophy is common sense with big words."

"There is no maxim, in my opinion, which is more liable to be misapplied, and which, therefore, more needs elucidation, than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong."

"The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy."

"Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other."

"A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people."

"A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country."

"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."

"In no instance have... the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people."

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries."

"Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government."

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

"The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted."

"Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere."