Thomas Jefferson

"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both."

"A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."

"History has informed us that bodies of men, as well as individuals, are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny."

"Cappon, Lester J., ed. The Adams-Jefferson Letters (1959)"

"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things."

"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them."