Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity. It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind.

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.

On this question of war, three things are to be considered. First, the right of declaring it: secondly, the expense of supporting it: thirdly, the mode of conducting it after it is declared.

But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.

A man may write himself out of reputation when nobody else can do it.

...the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist.

Public credit is suspicion asleep.