Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another. It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man.

He, who survives his reputation, lives out of despite himself, like a man listening to his own reproach.

Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.

A single legislature, on account of the superabundance of its power, and the uncontrolled rabidity of its execution, becomes as dangerous to the principles of liberty as that of a despotic monarch.

When authors and critics talk of the sublime, they see not how nearly it borders on the ridiculous.

It is, I believe, impossible to find in any story upon record so many and such glaring absurdities, contradictions, and falsehoods, as are in the books [The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John]. They are more numerous and striking than I had any expectation of finding, when I began this examination.

It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.