No man made the land. It is the original inheritance of the whole species. Its appropriation is wholly a question of general expediency. When private property in land is not expedient, it is unjust.

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.

The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it.

Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.

A person’s taste is as much his own peculiar concern as his opinion or his purse.

The spirit of improvement is not always a spirit of liberty, for it may aim at forcing improvements on an unwilling people.

Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of.

All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.

In the human mind, one-sidedness has always been the rule, and many-sidedness the exception. Hence, even in revolutions of opinion, one part of the truth usually sets while another rises.

He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.