The mutual confidence on which all else depends can be maintained only by an open mind and a brave reliance upon free discussion.

What I do is prepare myself until I know I can do what I have to do.

The reason angels can fly is because they take themselves lightly.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.

The welfare of the people has always been the alibi of tyrants.

The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall.

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most impressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be saturated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country.

Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.

I had always hoped that this land might become a safe & agreeable Asylum to the virtuous & persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.

It is a socialist idea making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.