Quote collection
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"The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?"
"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."
"Historically, usury was defined as any interest whatever on an unproductive loan.Our whole banking system I have ever abhorred, I continue to abhor, and I shall die abhorring."
"The true source of our sufferings has been our timidity."
"When public virtue is gone, when the national spirit is fled the republic is lost in essence, though it may still exist in form"
"Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell."
"Ambition is one of the ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable."
"Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the stronges cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net."
"The Constitution is ...the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen"
"You will ever remember that all the end of study is to make you a good man and a useful citizen."
"[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue."
"Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen ill, and increase good, but never assume to comprehend."
"You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket."
"Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, and measure in which the lives and liberties of millions yet unborn are intimately interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of a revolution the most complete, unexpected and remarkable of any in the history of nations."
"We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it."
"It is not only the juror's right, but his duty to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment and conscience, though in direct opposition to the instruction of the court."
"The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to prevent their growth in our own."
"I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them."
"The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity."
"Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war."