Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.
The simplest principles become difficult of practice, when habits, formed in error, have been fixed by time, and the simplest truths hard to receive when prejudice has warped the mind.
The hired preachers of all sects, creeds, and religions, never do, and never can, teach any thing but what is in conformity with the opinions of those who pay them.
It will appear evident upon attentive consideration that equality of intellectual and physical advantages is the only sure foundation of liberty, and that such equality may best, and perhaps only, be obtained by a union of interests and cooperation in labor.
Pets, like their owners, tend to expand a little over the Christmas period.
If we bring not the good courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepared to hear all things, and decide upon all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves only to reap disappointment.
Do we exert our own liberties without injury to others - we exert them justly; do we exert them at the expense of others - unjustly. And, in thus doing, we step from the sure platform of liberty upon the uncertain threshold of tyranny.
Surely it is time to examine into the meaning of words and the nature of things, and to arrive at simple facts, not received upon the dictum of learned authorities, but upon attentive personal observation of what is passing around us.
Instead of establishing facts, we have to overthrow errors; instead of ascertaining what is, we have to chase from our imaginations what is not.
Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.
If they exert it not for good, they will for evil; if they advance not knowledge, they will perpetuate ignorance.
There is but one honest limit to the rights of a sentient being; it is where they touch the rights of another sentient being.
Awaken its powers, and it will respect itself.
All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.
We hear of the wealth of nations, of the powers of production, of the demand and supply of markets, and we forget that these words mean no more, if they mean any thing, then the happiness, and the labor, and the necessities of men.
Religion may be defined thus: a belief in, and homage rendered to, existences unseen and causes unknown.
Speak of change, and the world is in alarm. And yet where do we not see change?
A necessary consequent of religious belief is the attaching ideas of merit to that belief, and of demerit to its absence.
And when did mere preaching do any good? Put something in the place of these things. Fill the vacuum of the mind.
But while human liberty has engaged the attention of the enlightened, and enlisted the feelings of the generous of all civilized nations, may we not enquire if this liberty has been rightly understood?
