Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them.
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.
Time makes more converts than reason.
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.
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.
It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
Human nature is not of itself vicious.
The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.
My mind is my own church.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.