Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
Where there is no law, there is no freedom.
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.
Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtues.
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.
Any single man must judge for himself whether circumstances warrant obedience or resistance to the commands of the civil magistrate; we are all qualified, entitled, and morally obliged to evaluate the conduct of our rulers. This political judgment, moreover, is not simply or primarily a right, but like self-preservation, a duty to God. As such it is a judgment that men cannot part with according to the God of Nature. It is the first and foremost of our inalienable rights without which we can preserve no other.
Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any reason but because they are not already common.