Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried.

Questions of natural right are triable by their conformity with the moral sense and reason of man.

For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.

Tobacco is a culture productive of infinite wretchedness.

I am convinced that those societies (such as the Native American peoples) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate.

I long to be in the midst of the children, and have more pleasure in their little follies than in the wisdom of the wise.

No religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced [in the elementary schools] inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination.