A right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings.

The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.

Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those entrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and power in the individuals and their families selected for the trust.

We lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience.

Is uniformity of opinion desirable? No more than that of face and stature.

I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way, is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object shifts light.