Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation.

The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.

There is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust.

Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in religious opinion. Time has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to assuage the disease.

Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.

[The public has] the habit now of invalidating opinions emanating from me by reference to my age and infirmities.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.