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

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Men fight for freedom; then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves.

Of publishing a book on religion, my dear sir, I never had an idea. I should as soon think of writing for the reformation of Bedlam, as of the world of religious sects. Of these there must be, at least, ten thousand, every individual of every one of which believes all wrong but his own.

I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowlege among the people. no other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom, and happiness.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

I'd rather have newspapers and no government than government and no newspapers.