It is no dishonor to be in a minority in the cause of liberty and virtue.
What a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent.
If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.
We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.
Let no man thirst for good beer.
Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters.
The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.
Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.
Shame on the men who can court exemption from present trouble and expense at the price of their own posterity’s liberty!
Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum.
A nation of shopkeepers are very seldom so disinterested.
A true patriot would keep the attention of his fellow citizens awake to their grievances, and not allow them to rest till the causes of their just complaints are removed.
It bodes very ill for government when men are exalted to places of high trust through their own solicitations. He only fills a place with dignity who is invited to it by his fellow citizens from the experience they have had of his adequate abilities.
What has commonly been called rebellion has more often been nothing but a manly and glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious kings and princes.
But there are some persons who wouldpersuade the people never to make use of their constitutional rights.
I firmly believe that the benevolent Creator designed the republican Form of Government for Man.
A standing army, however necessary it may be at some times, is always dangerous to the liberties of the people. Such power should be watched with a jealous eye.
We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them. Mankind are governed more by their feeling than by reason. Events which excite those feelings will produce wonderful effects.
If our Trade be taxed, why not our Lands, or Produce in short, everything we possess? They tax us without having legal representation.
A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.