The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.
These are the times that try men's souls.
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
My own mind is my own church.
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
Time makes more converts than reason.
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.
If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.
The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun.
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom,
