“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”

Never trouble another with what you can do yourself.

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

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

If you want something you’ve never had, You must be willing to do something you’ve never done.

When angry, count 10. before you speak; if very angry, 100.

Let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.

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

Think as you please, and so let others, and you will have no disputes.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

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.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

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

The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.

Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.

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 not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.

What father ever gave up his son to death for the sake of his slave!

Teach me to live, that I may dread The grave as little as my bed. Teach me to die.

Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?

Truth always ends by victory; it is not unassailable, but invincible.

A man thinks he is dying for his country,” said Anatole France, “but he is dying for a few industrialists.” But even that is saying too much. What one dies for is not even so substantial and tangible as an industrialist.

All places are alike, and every earth is fit for burial.

If you don’t know where you are currently standing, you’re dead.

Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life. . . . If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.