There is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous [founding nations upon superstition]; yet nothing can be inferred from it more than this, that the multitude have always been credulous, and the few artful....

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion… in private self-defense.

Everyone is stable at this time. If their condition appears to weaken, they will be brought to the hospital and either fed intravenously or nose fed,

If (the) empire of superstition and hypocrisy should be overthrown, happy indeed will it be for the world; but if all religion and morality should be overthrown with it, what advantages will be gained? The...

…Defeat appears to me preferable to total Inaction.

I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and...

Birth and wealth together have prevailed over virtue and talent in all ages

My critics feel there was a lack of fairness in the opera, because the Palestinians are treated with romantic harmonies and choruses of longing, and the Jews are treated unfairly because all we hear about...

I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough…the more one reads the more one sees we have to read.

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.

I am persuaded there is among the mass of our people a fund of wisdom, integrity, and humanity which will preserve their happiness in a tolerable measure

The insanity defense is so rooted in our common law as to be protected under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly; and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it

Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at; for it is the dictate of wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of virtue inmost

There are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation…is a...

All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of...

Courage and perseverance have a magic talisman, before which difficulties and obstacles vanish into air.

Mobs will never do to govern states or command armies

Books that cannot bear examination, certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws

He wrote as a young man that God’s noblest gift was the gift of an inquiring mind.

I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you...

A democracy is as really a republic as on oak a tree, or a temple a building

Happiness, whether in despotism or democracy, whether in slavery or liberty, can never be found without virtue

I knew I needed to tell this story … and discovered the depth of my ignorance in doing so.

I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

The Pythagorean, as well as the Platonic philosophers, probably concurred in the fabrication of the Christian Trinity

The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of government is to secure the existence of the body politic; to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the power of enjoying,...

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God...

Politeness, delicacy [and] decency … are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice.

In politics the middle way is none at all.

Education makes a greater difference between man and man than nature has made between man and brute.

Since the road has been changed, that’s just let everything come off the park.

As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it, in reason, morality, and the natural fitness of things

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

The universal object and idol of men of letters is reputation

This mode of electioneering suited neither my taste nor my principles. I thought it equally unsuitable to my personal character and to the station in which I am placed.

In that telling, there were things that were exposed about Dr. King. It cut through me in a way I (had) to do something with their story.

Now be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify,...

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people’s hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice

Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure,...

The deliberate union of so great and various a people in such a place, is without all partiality or prejudice, if not the greatest exertion of human understanding, the greatest single effort of national deliberation...

I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, in order to give their children a right to study painting,...

All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in their constitution or confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, as much from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit,...

As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my...