154 quotes
A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.
There is, in the human Breast, a social Affection, which extends to our whole Species.
Every measure of prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States.
Letter to Robert J. Evans (1819)
The world grows more enlightened. Knowledge is more equally diffused.
Discourses on Davila (1790)
Tyranny can scarcely be practised upon a virtuous and wise people.
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.
Liberty, according to my metaphysics, is an intellectual quality; an attribute that belongs not to fate nor chance. Neither possesses it, neither is capable of it.
Letters to John Taylor (1814)
The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)
It must be made a sacred maxim, that the militia obey the executive power, which represents the whole people in the execution of laws.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)
No man is entirely free from weakness and imperfection in this life.
Virtue is the mistress of all things. Virtue is the master of all things.
Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist.
Discourses on Davila (1790)
Birth and wealth are conferred on some men as imperiously by nature, as genius, strength, or beauty.
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)
The Europeans are all deeply tainted with prejudices, both ecclesiastical and temporal, which they can never get rid of.
Thus mystery is made a convenient cover for absurdity.
Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it.
Metaphysicians and politicians may dispute forever, but they will never find any other moral principle or foundation of rule or obedience, than the consent of governors and governed.
Novanglus Essays (1774)
Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.