If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption.

Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.

no people can be both ignorant and free.

not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take.

[T]o preserve the republican form and principles of our Constitution and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers which that [the Constitution] has established . . . are the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering.

the field of knolege is the common property of all mankind

I prefer to be remembered for what I have done for others, not what others have done for me.