It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.
When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
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.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.
No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free no one ever will.
The second office in the government is honorable and easy the first is but a splendid misery.
The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses.
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is neither wealth nor splendor but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.
In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.
The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.
Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.