“He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”

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 it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.

I’m a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

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

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

If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.

No people can be both ignorant and free.

No people can be both ignorant and free.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.

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

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave.

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.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing.