An informed citizen is the only true repository of the public will

All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

… the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.

No government ought to be without censors: and where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, it need not fear the fair operation of attack and defence. Nature has given to man no other means of sifting out the truth either in religion, law, or politics. I think it as honorable to the government neither to know, nor notice, it’s sycophants or censors, as it would be undignified and criminal to pamper the former and persecute the latter.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?