Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.

We might have been a free and great people together.

If anything pass in a religious meeting seditiously and contrary to the public peace, let it be punished in the same manner and no otherwise than as if it had happened in a fair or market.

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error... They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only... If [free enquiry] be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged.

I have lived temperately....I double the doctor's recommendation of a glass and a half wine each day and even treble it with a friend.