“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion.”

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!

I cannot live without books.

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

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none

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

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it the second time.

Every human being must be viewed according to what it is good for. For not one of us, no, not one, is perfect. And were we to love none who had imperfection, this world would be a desert for our love.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

The farther we get from God, the more the world spirals out of control.

You might not be able to control your circumstances but you can control your response to your circumstances.

Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future,and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.

The first step in taking control of your money is to stop borrowing money. Start using cash today.

I’m such a control freak, and it’s very hard for me to lose my inhibitions without something chemical inside me.

Chinese people need to be controlled; otherwise, they will do whatever they want.

Exercise is for people who can’t handle drugs or alcohol.

You will eventually lose control, and when you do – when you lose every last shred of it until you can’t see red from black, right from wrong—I will be here. Ready to back you up, the way you should be doing for me.