Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.

[Y]ou will understand the game behind the curtain too well not to perceive the old trick of turning every contingency into a resource for accumulating force in the government.

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

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

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.

The magnitude of this evil among us is so deeply felt, and so universally acknowledged, that no merit could be greater than that of devising a satisfactory remedy for it.