Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone.
Though [the people] may acquiesce, they cannot approve what they do not understand.
The first object of human association [is] the full improvement of their condition.
Some other natural rights... [have] not yet entered into any declaration of rights.
What all agree upon is probably right; what no two agree in most probably is wrong.
If I had to choose between government and a free press, I would choose a free press.
It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war as much as possible.
There is no act, however virtuous, for which ingenuity may not find some bad motive.
Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life.
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves.
[The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government.
Everything is useful which contributes to fix the principles and practices of virtue.
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
The happiest hours of my life have been spent in the flow of affection among friends.
Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.
One never really knows how much one has been touched by a place until one has left it.
I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations.
No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.
The ordinary affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience.
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.
The most uninformed mind with a healthy body is happier than the wisest valetudinarian.
I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man.
Agriculture is at the same time the most tranquil, healthy, and independent occupation.
There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.
The greatest honor of a man is in doing good to his fellow men, not in destroying them.
The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction.
It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.
I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man.
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
No race of kings has ever presented above one man of common sense in twenty generations.
Gaming corrupts our disposition and teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind.
Establish the eternal truth that acquiescence under insult is not the way to escape war.
We must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.
Where thought is free in its range, we need never fear to hazard what is good in itself.
That one hundred and fifty lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected.
The only greater [evil] than separation... [is] living under a government of discretion.
The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural rights.
Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.
Religious leaders will always avail themselves of public ignorance for their own purpose.
Our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them.
I would rather have newspapers without a government than a government without newspapers.
While prudence will endeavor to avoid this issue of war, bravery will prepare to meet it.
Malice will always find bad motives for good actions. - Shall we therefore never do good?