There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state. The construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by a quiet and regular operation, all that extent of capacity.

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments.

It is never to be expected in a revolution that every man is to change his opinion at the same moment. There never yet was any truth or any principle so irresistibly obvious that all men believed it at once. Time and reason must cooperate with each other to the final establishment of any principle; and therefore those who may happen to be first convinced have not a right to persecute others, on whom conviction operates more slowly. The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy.

The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.

The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man.