"I have so much confidence in the good sense of man, and his capacity for self-government, that I am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her force."

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket no…"

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

"I consider the people who constitute a society or nation as the source of all authority in that nation."

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."