M o d e r n P e r s p e c t i v e s . c o m

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequal people.

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

I never told my religion nor scrutinize that of another. I never attempted to make a convert nor wished to change another’s creed. I have judged of others’ religion by their lives, for it is from our lives and not from our words that our religion must be read. By the same test must the world judge me.

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

I believe that justice is instinct and innate, the moral sense is as much a part of our constitution as the threat of feeling, seeing and hearing.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Never spend your money before you have it.

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.

I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.

Health is worth more than learning.

If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

Determine never to be idle…It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

Enlighten the people, generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like spirits at the dawn of day.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.