[If] the nature of ... government [were] a subordination of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, I [would] consider it as desperate for long years to come. Their steady habits [will] exclude the advances of information, and they [will] seem exactly where they [have always been]. And there [the] clergy will always keep them if they can. [They] will follow the bark of liberty only by the help of a tow-rope.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

Victory and defeat are each of the same price.

The government you elect is the government you deserve.

I hold it to be one of the distinguishing excellences of elective over hereditary successions that the talents which nature has provided in sufficient proportion, should be selected by the society for the govenment of their affairs, rather than that this should be be transmitted through the loins of knaves and fools passing from the debauches of the table to those of the bed.

Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free.

All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution.