“Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time.”

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.

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

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

From a knowledge of His work, we shall know Him.

It isn’t mere love and good-will that is needed in a sick-room; it needs knowledge and experience.

People are so in need, in need of help. People want so much that they do not know.

But it is the knowledge of necessary and eternal truths which distinguishes us from mere animals, and gives us reason and the sciences, raising us to knowledge of ourselves and God. It is this in us which we call the rational soul or mind.

You’ve got to know much more than the mere technicalities of notes. You’ve got to know sounds and what goes between the notes.

Knowing “why” (an idea) is more important than learning “what” (the fact).

If you do not know the names of things, the knowledge of them is lost, too.

Scientific knowledge scarcely exists amongst the higher classes of society. The discussion in the Houses of Lords or of Commons, which arise on the occurrence of any subjects connected with science, sufficiently prove this fact.