The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.

Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.

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.

Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable for, not the rightness, but the uprightness of the decision

[T]o preserve the republican form and principles of our Constitution and cleave to the salutary distribution of powers which that [the Constitution] has established . . . are the two sheet anchors of our Union. If driven from either, we shall be in danger of foundering.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.

A great deal of love given to a few is better than a little to many.