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