No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
Be polite to all, but intimate with few.
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor – over each other.
When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.
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.
The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.
I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.
The good opinion of mankind, like the lever of Archimedes, with the given fulcrum, moves the world.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
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