Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
We think ourselves possessed, or, at least, we boast that we are so, of liberty of conscience on all subjects, and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment in all cases, and yet how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact!
The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.
A man ought to avow his opinions and defend them with boldness.
I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
Thomas Jefferson still survives.
I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.
I discovered books and read forever.
It may amuse you to hear a Story. A few days ago, in Company with Dr Zubly, somebody said, there was nobody on our side but the Almighty. The Dr. who is a Native of Switzerland, and speaks but broken English, quickly replied ‘Dat is enough.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
Banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they can have done or ever will do good.
The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
If worthless men are sometimes at the head of affairs, it is, I believe, because worthless men are at the tail and the middle.
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.
Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.