The principle of asceticism never was, nor ever can be, consistently pursued by any living creature. Let but one tenth part of the inhabitants of the earth pursue it consistently, and in a day's time they will have turned it into a Hell.

No power of government ought to be employed in the endeavor to establish any system or article of belief on the subject of religion.

Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it.

All punishment is mischief; all punishment in itself is evil.

He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks; it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct; if wrong, as a beacon to warn.

The word "independence" is united to the accessory ideas of dignity and virtue. The word "dependence" is united to the ideas of inferiority and corruption.

All government is a trust. Every branch of government is a trust, and immemorially acknowledged to be so.