Revolution is engendered by an indignation with tyranny, yet is itself pregnant with tyranny.... An attempt to scrutinize men's thoughts and punish their opinions is of all kinds of despotism the most odious: yet this is peculiarly character of a period of revolution.... There is no period more at war with the existence of liberty.

No maxim can be more pernicious than that which would teach us to consult the temper of the times, and to tell only so much as we imagine our contemporaries will be able to bear.

What indeed is life, unless so far as it is enjoyed? It does not merit the name.

Books are the depositary of everything that is most honourable to man.

Whenever truth stands in the mind unaccompanied by the evidence upon which it depends, it cannot properly be said to be apprehended at all.

Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.

Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind.