The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts.

...in war, they will kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them

Trade liberty for safety or money and you'll end up with neither. Liberty, like a grain of salt, easily dissolves. The power of questioning - not simply believing - has no friends. Yet liberty depends on it.

I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make.

[I]t seems that the Cannibals of Europe are going to eat one another again. A war between Russia and Turkey is like the battle of the kite and snake; whichever destroys the other, leaves a destroyer the less for the world.

Our part is to pursue with steadiness what is right, turning neither to right nor left for the intrigues or popular delusions of the day, assured that the public approbation will in the end be with us.