154 quotes
Let every declamation turn upon the beauty of liberty and virtue, and the deformity, turpitude, and malignity, of slavery and vice.
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to determine whether a republican government is practicable in a nation or not.
I have not one drop of blood in my veins but what is American.
To an ambassador (1785)
Rivalries must be controlled, or they will throw all things into confusion; and there is nothing but despotism or a balance of power which can control them.
Discourses on Davila (1790)
I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
Discourses on Davila (1790)
Let them revere nothing but religion, morality and liberty.
Major Greene this evening fell into some conversation with me about the Divinity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ.
The poor people, it is true, have been much less successful than the great.
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
A government of laws, and not of men.
Novanglus Essays (1774)
Slavery in this Country I have seen hanging over it like a black cloud for half a century…
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
I had heard my father say that he never knew a piece of land run away or break.
I agree with you that in politics the middle way is none at all.
Let the pulpit resound with the doctrines and sentiments of religious liberty.
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved — the Cross.
Where do we find a precept in the Gospel requiring Ecclesiastical Synods? Convocations? Councils? Decrees? Creeds? Confessions? Oaths? Subscriptions? and whole cart-loads of other trumpery that we find religion incumbered with in these days?
Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.
Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. Let every order and degree among the people rouse their attention and animate their resolution.
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?