... the common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced or knew that such a character existed.

It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect, and on a general plan.

Excessive taxation . . . will carry reason & reflection to every man's door, and particularly in the hour of election.

There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.

A good neighbor is a very desireable thing.