I discharge every person under punishment or prosecution under the Sedition Law, because I considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity as absolute and palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people.

Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them.

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.

Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck.

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.