Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government.

I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest a continued one through the year.

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

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

If we could believe that Jesus...countenanced the follies, falsehoods and charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, ...the conclusion would be irresistible...that he was an imposter.

Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity

Dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise.