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.

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

I wish that all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance may be ever maintained among nations, and...

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.–The Fruit Hunters

. . . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than...

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.

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

I hope they pardoned them. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that i wish it to be always kept alive….I like a little rebellion now and then. It is...

I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened,...

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

There is…an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents…. The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provisions should be made to prevent its ascendancy.

the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

The greatest honor of a man is in doing good to his fellow men, not in destroying them.

To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, ‘by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.’...

not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to...

That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. (to Horatio Gates, 1798)

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.

When describing the University of Virginia: Here, We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.

Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the...

No doubt President Jefferson was brilliant – probably the key author of the American constitution. But the PNP and Jamaica have our own Thomas Jefferson … former leader and Premier Norman Washington Manley. Indeed Norman...

All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution

When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain.

The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and...

We prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form and to any people whatever

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.

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.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.