An informed citizenry is at the heart of a dynamic democracy.

Whose foot is to be the measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched?

The mass of the citizens is the safest depositary of their own rights.

It is a [disputed] question, whether the circulation of paper, rather than of specie [gold and silver coin], is a good or an evil I believe it to be one of those cases where mercantile clamor will bear down reason, until it is corrected by ruin.

I do most anxiously wish to see the highest degrees of education given to the higher degrees of genius and to all degrees of it, so much as may enable them to read and understand what is going on in the world and to keep their part of it going on right; for nothing can keep it right but their own vigilant and distrustful superintendence.

We should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them in Music, Chess, or the merriments of our family companions.

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.