There is no King, who, with sufficient force, is not always ready to make himself absolute.
The happiness of society depends so much on preventing party spirit from infecting the common intercourse of life, that nothing should be spared to harmonize and amalgamate the two parties in social circles.
The States should be urged to concede to the General Government, with a saving of chartered rights, the exclusive power of establishing banks of discount for paper.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.
Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.
No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor – over each other.
Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.
An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.
My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.
I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.