Taxes are what we pay for civilized society

The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas [and] the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.

The great end of being is to harmonize man with the order of things, and the church has been a good pitch-pipe, and may be so still.

The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.

The root of joy, as of duty, is to put all one's powers towards some great end.

There is nothing earthly that lasts so well, as money. A man's learning dies with him, as does his virtues fade out of remembrance, but the dividends on the stocks he bequeaths to his children live and keep his memory green.

Our test of truth is a reference to either a present or imagined future majority in favour of our view.