I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise. I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution. I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him. Political interest can never be separated in the long run from moral right. Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone. I enquire after no man's and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether yours or mine, our friend's or our foe's, are exactly the right. Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost. One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them. Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual. Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. | 
