Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.]
The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.]
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty is this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for cent
The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.
Where we see the same faults followed regularly by the same misfortunes, we may reasonably think that if we could have known the first we might have avoided the others.
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.
it was impossible to confine a Government to the exercise of express powers; there must necessarily be admitted powers by implication, unless the Constitution descended to recount every minutia
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind, and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded pro
Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.
In no instance have the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
Since the general civilization of mankind I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
The happy Union of these States is a wonder their Constitution a miracle their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
A man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science.
To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.
What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?
Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.
A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.
All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.
I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.
Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.
The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security.
It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.
To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.