We discover (in the gospels) a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication

One insult pocketed soon produces another

The two principles on which our conduct towards the Indians should be founded, are justice and fear. After the injuries we have done them, they cannot love us.

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.

Under the law of nature, all men are born free, every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own...

The best principles of our republic secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights.

I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.

I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading subjugation on the other. Our children see this, and...

A Man’s management of his own purse speaks volumes about character

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

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

I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.

We hold these truths to be self-evident.{Franklin’s edit to the assertion in Thomas Jefferson’s original wording, ‘We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable’ in a draft of the Declaration of Independence changes it...

The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and improving him as a rational, moral and social being

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect and noble.

I know it will give great offense to the clergy, but the advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from them

No nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage. It is, in truth, the only antidote to the bane of whiskey.

We often repent of what we have said, but never, never, of that which we have not

Nothing was or is farther from my intentions, than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion, where I have only expressed doubt.

And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

In a republican nation, whose citizens are to be led by reason and persuasion and not by force, the art of reasoning becomes of first importance

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

Delay is preferable to error.

War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.

My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.

Let what will be said or done, preserve your sang froid immovably, and to every obstacle oppose patience, perseverance and soothing language

The appointment of a woman to office is an innovation for which the public is not prepared, nor am I

On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.

A free people claim their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their magistrate.

I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but the people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take power from them, but to inform...

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.

A professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution (the University of Virginia)

To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.

I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment . . . inflict on his...

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.

I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.