To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

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

Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion.

We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good.

The cement of this union is in the heart blood of every American. I do not believe there is on earth a government established on so immovable a basis.

There is no justification for taking away individuals' freedom in the guise of public safety.

Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man.