The dead should not rule the living.

If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the...

So inscrutable is the arrangement of causes and consequences in this world, that a two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it, changes the condition of all its inhabitants.

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time till at length it becomes habitual.

For Heaven’s sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum

I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its creed and conscience to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of only one God is reviving, and I...

If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.

He who knows best knows how little he knows

Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a...

Let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it

Victory and defeat are each of the same price.

I write nothing for publication, and last of all things should it be on the subject of religion. On the dogmas of religion as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the...

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

It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring...

We never repent of having eaten too little.

I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. The issuing powers should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

No man will ever bring out of the presidency the reputation which carries him into it

A republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible

Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

I have not observed men’s honesty to increase with their riches.

On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves...

We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the...

I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.

I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.

No body wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the...

no people can be both ignorant and free.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

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

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to = remain silent.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined, and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion?...

I can never fear that things will go far wrong where common sense has fair play.

The most truthful part of a newspaper is the advertisements

We must do our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies

The hole and the patch should be commensurate

This is the fourth?

There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.

Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.