I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!

Those who expect to be both ignorant and free, expect what never was and never will be.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.

Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry.

I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.