Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.
Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.
Where there is no law there is no freedom.
Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society and made by the legislative power vested in it and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, arbitrary will of another man.
No peace and security among mankind-let alone common friendship-can ever exist as long as people think that governments get their authority from God and that religion is to be propagated by force of arms.
If any one shall claim a power to lay and levy taxes on the people by his own authority and without such consent of the people, he thereby invades the fundamental law of property, and subverts the end of government.
Slavery is so vile and miserable an Estate of Man, and so directly opposite to the generous Temper and Courage of our Nation; that ’tis hardly to be conceived, that an Englishman, much less a Gentleman, should plead for’t.
In short, herein seems to lie the difference between idiots and madmen, that madmen put wrong ideas together, and so make wrong propositions, but argue and reason right from them: but idiots make very few or no propositions, and reason scarce at all.
I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment.
The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.
I have no reason to suppose that he, who would take away my Liberty, would not when he had me in his Power, take away everything else.
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.
There is no such way to gain admittance, or give defence to strange and absurd Doctrines, as to guard them round about with Legions of obscure, doubtful, and undefin’d Words.
What worries you, masters you.
The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves.
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.
The reservedness and distance that fathers keep, often deprive their sons of that refuge which would be of more advantage to them than an hundred rebukes or chidings.
It is one thing to persuade, another to command; one thing to press with arguments, another with penalties.
He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.