I... [am] convinced [man] has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.

Sensibility of mind is indeed the parent of every virtue, but it is the parent of much misery, too.

I am anxious to see the doctrine of one god commenced in our state. But the population of my neighborhood is too slender, and is too much divided into other sects to maintain any one preacher well. I must therefore be contented to be an Unitarian by myself, although I know there are many around me who would become so, if once they could hear the questions fairly stated.

The foundation on which (our government is) built is the natural equality of man, the denial of every pre-eminence but that annexed to legal office, and particularly the denial of a pre-eminence by birth.

Fear can only prevail when victims are ignorant of the facts.

My heart trembles when I reflect that God is just