I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance.

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my family, and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post which any human power can give.

It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice

Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves.

A superintending power to maintain the Universe in its course and order.

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical...A wise and frugal government...shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned...Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated...Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands?

To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse.