Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
...the true greatness of a nation is founded on principles of humanity.
It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to corrupt himself.
Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God.
You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.
Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
He who takes nature for his guide, is not easily beaten out of his argument
Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals.
Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches.
War is the gambling table of governments, and citizens the dupes of the game.
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must undertake to support it.
A man does not serve God when he prays, for it is himself he is trying to serve
... in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.
The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.
The people of America are a people of property; almost every man is a freeholder.
Every proprietor owes to the community a ground-rent for the land which he holds.
It is a general idea, that when taxes are once laid on, they are never taken off.
Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous consciousness of honor.
The period of debate is closed. Arms, as a last resource, must decide the contest.
It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by attaching it to this filthy book.
For the fate of Charles the first, hath only made kings more subtle — not more just.
Taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.
The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.
The protection of a man's person is more sacred than the protection of his property.
Suspicion and persecution are weeds of the same dunghill, and flourish best together.
A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing.
"Government," says Swift, "is a plain thing, and fitted to the capacity of many heads."
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.
Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order.
A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
There is something absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.
The final event to himself has been, that as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.
...for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
It is with a pious fraud as with a bad action; it begets a calamitous necessity of going on.
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.
The first was a government of priestcraft, the second of conquerors, and the third of reason.