Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

The duty of man is not a wilderness of turnpike gates, through which he is to pass by tickets from one to the other. It is plain and simple, and consists but of two points--his duty God, which every man must feel; and, with respect to his neighbor, to do as he would be done by.

To live with our enemies as if they may some time become our friends, and to live with our friends as if they may some time become our enemies, is not a moral but a political maxim

Death is not the monarch for the dead, but of the dying. The moment he obtains a conquest he loses a subject.

The Christian system of religion is an outrage on common sense.

Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.

My mind is my own church.