Your own reason is the only oracle given to you by God.

That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone.

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.

If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.

I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.

Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions.

I sincerely congratulate you on the arrival of the mockingbird. Learn all the children to venerate it as a superior being in the form of a bird, or as a being which will haunt them if any harm is done to itself or its eggs.