The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory.
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
If God is just, I tremble for my country.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.
The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.
The second office in the government is honorable and easy the first is but a splendid misery.
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.
To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.
He who knows best knows how little he knows.
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.
When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.
One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.
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.
No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free no one ever will.
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Power is not alluring to pure minds.
The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.
As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other.
I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.
One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just that his justice cannot sleep forever.
I find that he is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad.
One man with courage is a majority.
Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
It is neither wealth nor splendor but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.
That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.
It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
being good, men & time
There is not a truth existing which I fear... or would wish unknown to the whole world.
It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.
Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.
Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.
History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.
Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations entangling alliances with none.
Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Never spend your money before you have earned it.
The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.