Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry.

A single zealot may commence prosecutor, and better men be his victims.

I wish to see this beverage become common instead of the whiskey which kills sone-third of our citizens and ruins their families.

Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.

Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.

Never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many on their getting warm, becoming rude and shooting one another.