In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them, and to effect this, they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer for their purposes.

Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.

When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.

Ignorance and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government.

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition.

music, drawing, books, invention & exercise will be so many resources to you against ennui.

We figure great careers aren't made. They're experienced.