“I am a sect by myself, as far as I know.”

“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.”

“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

“A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.”

“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

“He who knows best knows how little he knows.”

“Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.”

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

“When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it.” 

“I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.”

“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.” 

“Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting John Locke's argument.”

“A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.”

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.”

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”