Natural rights [are] the objects for the protection of which society is formed and municipal laws established.

The true fountains of evidence [are] the head and heart of every rational and honest man. It is there nature has written her moral laws, and where every man may read them for himself.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier.

The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and improving him as a rational, moral and social being

The diffusion of information and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration.

Wine brightens the life and thinking of anyone