If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
These are the times that try men's souls.
Human nature is not of itself vicious.
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Reputation is what men and women think of us character is what God and angels know of us.
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
Time makes more converts than reason.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.
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.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one.
It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.