I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.
Property monopolized or in the possession of a few is a curse to mankind.
The whole drama of the world is such tragedy that I am weary of the spectacle.
Thanks to God that he gave me stubborness when I know I am right.
My God! This is a revolution! We have to offend someone!
Here, every private person is authorized to arm himself, and on the strength of this authority, I do not deny the inhabitants had a right to arm themselves at that time, for their defense, not for offense...
But I must submit all my Hopes and Fears, to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the Faith may be, I firmly believe.
Ideology is the science of idiots.
Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.
Power must never be trusted without a check.
The happiness of society is the end of government.
All sober inquirers after truth, ancient and modern, pagan and Christian, have declared that the happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.
The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people’s hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice.
Disease, a simple famine, plagues of locusts everywhere, or a cataclysmic earthquake, I’d accept with some despair, but no, you sent us Congress! Good God, Sir, was that fair?
That the desires of the majority of the people are often for injustice and inhumanity against the minority, is demonstrated by every page of the history of the world.
The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.
Government has no right to hurt the hair of an Atheist for his Opinions. Let him have a care of his Practices.
There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution.
The only thing most people do better than anyone else is read their own handwriting.