All authority belongs to the people

No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government.

Offices are as acceptable here as elsewhere, and whenever a man has cast a longing eye on them, a rottenness begins in his conduct

I see students all over and around the building. It looks nothing like a school. It looks like a country club.

A Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life:1. Never put off to tomorrow what you can do to-day.2. Never trouble another with what you can do yourself.3. Never spend your money before you have...

I agree with yours of the 22d that a professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution. but we cannot always do what is absolutely best. those with whom we act, entertaining different...

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved – the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief...

No man will ever bring out of that office the reputation which carries him into it. The honeymoon would be as short in that case as in any other, and its moments of ecstasy would...

The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.

In defense of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our...

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

The way to silence religious disputes is to take no notice of them.

A little rebellion is good now and then.

Governments (derive) their just powers from the consent of the governed

If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is, that we should have nothing to do with conquest

It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power [the judiciary] is independent of the nation.

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

They (preachers) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live

But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

The most fortunate of us all in our journey through life frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which greatly afflict us. To fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be...

The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.

Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against...

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me.

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

Money, not morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations

Yet the hour of emancipation is advancing . . . this enterprise is for the young; for those who can follow it up, and bear it through to it’s consummation. it shall have all my...

Sound principles will not justify our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not perhaps happen but from the temptations offered...

We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life,...

My principle is to do whatever is right, and leave the consequences to Him who has the disposal of them

Defamation is becoming a necessity of life; inasmuch as a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant

Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them

They (religions) dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.

Freedom, the first-born of science.

In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their...

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

The most valuable of all talents is never using two words when one will do.

And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as...

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

I believe that justice is instinct and innate; the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as the threat of feeling, seeing and hearing.

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys