“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”

Government is not a trade which any man or body of men has a right to set up and exercise for his own emolument, but is altogether a trust, in right of those by whom that trust is delegated, and by whom it is always resumable. It has of itself no rights; they are altogether duties.

Men should not petition for rights, but take them.

What is it the Bible teaches us? – raping, cruelty, and murder. What is it the New Testament teaches us? – to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married, and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.

No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.

It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.

I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.

It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.

It has been the political career of this man to begin with hypocrisy, proceed with arrogance, and finish with contempt.

The Deist needs none of those tricks and shows called miracles to confirm his faith, for what can be a greater miracle than the creation itself, and his own existence?

These are the times that try men’s souls.

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.

The fatal tendency of mankind to leave off thinking about a thing when it is no longer doubtful is the cause of half their errors.

The earth we inhabit is an error, an incompetent parody. Mirrors and paternity are abominable because they multiply and affirm it.

Do not be afraid of errors. There are no errors.

The magic on you is only magic and will vanish as soon as you are free, but the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes. We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.

Wrapt up in error is the human mind, And human bliss is ever insecure; Know we what fortune yet remains behind? Know we how long the present shall endure?

It is not so difficult a task to plant new truths, as to root out old errors; for there is this paradox in men, they run after that which is new, but are prejudiced in favor of that which is old.

Ignorance is a blank sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one, on which we must first erase.