One never really knows how much one has been touched by a place until one has left it.

To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement

If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

We might have been a free and great people together.

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.

Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.