Opinion

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We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us
Lies are sufficient to breed opinion, and opinion brings on substance
In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character
Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

First Inaugural Address
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.

First Inaugural address, 1801
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