Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people.
The contest is not between us and them, but between good and evil, and if those who would fight evil adopt the ways of evil, evil wins.
I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent and sublime which have ever been preached to man.
Certainly one of the highest duties of the citizen is a scrupulous obedience to the laws of the nation. But it is not the highest duty.
He who is permitted by law to have no property of his own, can with difficulty conceive that property is founded in anything but force.
While old men feel sensibly enough their own advance in years, they do not sufficiently recollect it in those whom they have seenyoung.
Revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid cheerfully by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts.
Were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask respecting a candidate would be, Does he use ardent spirits?
An occasional insurrection will not weigh against the inconveniences of a government of force, such as are monarchies and aristocracies.
I am tired of a life of contention, and of being the personal object for the hatred of every man, who hates the present state of things.
Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man.
A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a people who mean to be free.
There is a debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to the bounties which nature and fortune have measured to him.
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God
The purpose of establishing different houses of legislation is to introduce the influence of different interests or different principles.
No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
The art of life is the art of avoiding pain; and he is the best pilot, who steers clearest of the rocks and shoals with which it is beset.
Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable for, not the rightness, but the uprightness of the decision
It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also.
Nothing was or is farther from my intentions, than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion, where I have only expressed doubt.
The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state.
We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good.
Still less let it be proposed that our properties within our own territories shall be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own.
This I hope will be the age of experiments in government, and that their basis will be founded in principles of honesty, not of mere force.
The further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism.
The information of the people at large can alone make them the safe as they are the sole depositary of our political and religious freedom.
There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.
By making this wine known to the public, I have rendered my country as great a service as if I had enabled it to pay back the national debt.
My passion strengthens daily to quit political turmoil, and retire into the bosom of my family, the only scene of sincere and purehappiness.
I think it is a great error to consider a heavy tax on wines as a tax on luxury. On the contrary, it is a tax on the health of our citizens.
I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives. For it is in our lives, and not from our works, that our religion must be read.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.
Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light.
Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christians.
The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
It is proof of sincerity, which I value above all things; as, between those who practice it, falsehood and malice work their efforts in vain.
the study of the law is useful in a variety of points of view. it qualifies a man to be useful to himself, to his neighbors, & to the public.
My general plan would be to make the States one as to everything connected with foreign nations and several as to everything purely domestic.
Slavery is an abomination and must be loudly proclaimed as such, but I own that I nor any other man has any immediate solution to the problem.
I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
Trial by jury is part of that bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.
Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way, is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object shifts light.
The uniform tenor of a man's life furnishes better evidence of what he has said or done on any particular occasion than the word of any enemy.
We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.
I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make.
In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant.
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.