May [our Declaration of Independence] be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government... All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man.

I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural.

It will take a thousand years for the frontier to reach the Pacific

I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.

No government can continue good, but under the control of the people.

[F]alsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.

The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?