No government should be without critics. If its intentions are good then it has nothing to fear from criticism.

Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

Difficulties indeed sometimes arise; but common sense and honest intentions will generally steer through them.

It is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles; and it is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.

It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation.

I am tired of a life of contention, and of being the personal object for the hatred of every man, who hates the present state of things.

Men fight for freedom; then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves.