I join you, therefore, in sincere congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length broken up, and that a Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the American history and character

Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to...

The hole and the patch should be commensurate

This is the fourth?

…legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of...

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to...

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead.

The construction applied … to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate Congress a power … ought not to be construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to...

It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood

[He wove those three threads into a talk ranging from annually spending a week at Halloween as a child collecting candy to giving candy to hundreds of children at Halloween as an adult; from childhood...

Governments are republican only in proportion as they employ the will of the people and execute it

How much pain worries have cost us that have never happened?

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.

The summum bonum with me is now truly Epicurean, ease of body and tranquility of mind; and to these I wish to consign my remaining days

I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than...

Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace

The executive power in our government is not the only, perhaps not even the principal, object of my solicitude. The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue...

It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

The fantastical idea of virtue and the public good being a sufficient security to the state against the commission of crimes…was never mine. It is only the sanguinary hue of our penal laws which I...

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

The Constitution of the United States is the result of the collected wisdom of our country

Sir,- I have duly received your favor of the 18th and am thankful to you for having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to refuse what I do not think myself...

The art of governing consists simply of being honest, exercising common sense, following principle, and doing what is right and just.

A little rebellion now and then… is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

On every question of Construction (of the Constitution) lets us carry our-selves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, instead of trying what meaning may be...

It is unfortunate for our peace, that unmerited abuse wounds, while unmerited praise has not the power to heal

All are dead, and ourselves left alone amidst a new generation whom we know not, and who know us not.

The care of human life and happiness, and their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of a good government.

I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.

It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This...

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.

In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

Equal rights for all, special privileges for none

History has informed us that bodies of men as well as individuals are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny

The man who fears no truth has nothing to fear from lies.

Without society, and a society to our taste, men are never contented

Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.

Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both always in proportion as it is free.

We seldom report of having eaten too little.