The Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.

I would rather have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers.

No provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.

The Constitution on which our Union rests, shall be administered by me [as President] according to the safe and honest meaning contemplated by the plain understanding of the people of the United States at the time of its adoption - a meaning to be found in the explanations of those who advocated, not those who opposed it, and who opposed it merely lest the construction should be applied which they denounced as possible.

ONLY a government that is AFRAID of its citizens tries to control them.

Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error.

A truth now and then projecting into the ocean of newspaper lies serves like headlands to correct our course. Indeed, my scepticism as to everything I see in a newspaper makes me indifferent whether I ever see one.