Men as well as rivers grow crooked by following the path of least resistance.

The further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism.

To take a single step beyond the text would be to take possession of a boundless field of power.

In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

We are sensible of the duty and expediency of submitting our opinions to the will of the majority, and can wait with patience till they get right if they happen to be at any time wrong.

The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever more dangerous. Jesus had to work on the perilous confines of reason and religion; and a step to the right or left might place him within the grasp of the priests of the superstition, a bloodthirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.