I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.

A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

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

Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives... But this does not satisfy the priesthood. They must have a positive, a declared assent to all of their interested absurdities. My opinion is that there would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest.

I am for a government rigorously frugal & simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers & salaries merely to make partisans, & for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of its being a public blessing.

Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless, by human interposition, disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.