Power to do good is the true and lawful act of aspiring; for good thoughts (though God accept them), yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground.

I esteem it above all things necessary to distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion and to settle the just bounds that lie between the one and the other.

Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard and clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict reasoning.

I am sure, zeal or love for truth can never permit falsehood to be used in the defense of it.

False and doubtful positions, relied upon as unquestionable maxims, keep those who build on them in the dark from truth. Such are usually the prejudices imbibed from education, party, reverence, fashion, interest, et cetera.

In the beginning, all the world was America.

Let not men think there is no truth, but in the sciences that they study, or the books that they read.