If you have any duty which must be done, and it seems disagreeable, do it promptly and have it over.

Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent.

What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.... [Instead] reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free enquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves?

Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.

The failure of one thing is repaired by the success of another.

When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.

Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light.