"The law of nature would, as all other laws that concern men in this world, be in vain, if there were no body that in the state of nature had a power to execute that law, and thereby preserve the innoc…"

"The greatest part of mankind are more swayed by custom than by reason."

"It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth."

"The mind, by being open to conviction, and ready to embrace truth for its own sake, has a free use of its faculties, and a fair opportunity of attaining to a great perfection."

"The power of the legislative, being derived from the people by a positive voluntary grant and institution, can be no other than what that positive grant conveyed."