A just government has no need for the clergy or the church.

[Restraints on the press] in all ages, have debauched morals, depressed liberty, shackled religion, supported despotism, and deluged the scaffold with blood.

It is of great importance in a republic, not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers; but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part.

People will continue to seek justice until it is found, or until liberty is lost in the pursuit.

Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other, and the former will be objects to which the latter attach themselves.

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.