In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

I see the necessity of sacrificing our opinions sometimes to the opinions of others for the sake of harmony.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The time to guard against corruption and tyranny is before they shall have gotten hold of us.

My affections were first for my own country, then, generally, for all mankind

It will be said that great societies cannot exist without government.