“I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.”

“I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living.”

“In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.”

“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.”

“It is while we are young that the habit of industry is formed. If not then, it never is afterward.”

“The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. ”

“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present, but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” 

“God grant that men of principle shall be our principal men.”

“Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.”

“Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.”

“Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.”

“Any Government strong enough to give you what you want, is a Government strong enough to take everything you have!” 

“The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.”

“I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. ”

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms”