“The right of voting for representatives , is the primary right by which other rights are protected.”

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

Taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.

Government without a constitution, is a power without a right.

If those to whom power is delegated do well, they will be respected; if not, they will be despised.

If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to [profess] things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

When it becomes necessary to do a thing, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.

I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

In Deism our reason and our belief become happily united. The wonderful structure of the universe, and everything we behold in the system of the creation, prove to us, far better than books can do, the existence of a God, and at the same time proclaim His attributes.

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

A Constitution is not the act of a Government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution is a power without right.