Nothing is so contagious as opinion, especially on questions which, being susceptible of very different glosses, beget in the mind a distrust of itself.

In republican government the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this . . . is to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them by different modes of election, and different principles of action, as little connected with each other as the nature of their common functions, and their common dependence on the society, will admit.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.

I have ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect.

By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest... The latent causes of faction are sown in the nature of man.

[I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed.

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.