Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.
Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?
Power is not alluring to pure minds.
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.
None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.
We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.
I sincerely believe... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms.
One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.