Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
One hundred and seventy-three despots would surely be as oppressive as one.
Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.
[Exchange] the galling burden of bachelorship for the easy yoke of matrimony.
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?
Every word of [the Constitution] decides a question between power and liberty.
The very definition of tyranny is when all powers are gathered under one place.
Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.
if the people are to be our governors, they must arm themselves with knowledge.
Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.
Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves.
Our opinions agree as to the evil, moral, political, and economical, of slavery.
The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
In no instance have... the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.
Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.
The express authority of the people alone could give validity to the Constitution.
[Property] embraces everything to which a man may attach a value and have a right.
The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.
To consider the degree of concord which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle.
But the mere circumstance of complexion cannot deprive them of the character of men.
In all great changes of established governments, forms ought to give way to substance
The growing wealth aquired by them corporations never fails to be a source of abuses.
Equal laws protecting equal rights…the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.
No free country has ever been without Parties, which are a natural offspring of freedom.
I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.
The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.
We've staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all our heart.
The Alien bill proposed in the Senate is a monster that must forever disgrace its parents.
Who are to be the electors of the Federal Representatives? Not the rich, more than the poor
[I]t is the reason alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government.
Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.
Congress shall never disarm any citizen unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.
The Constitution of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion.
No power over the freedom of religion [is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution.
The power of taxing people and their property is essential to the very existence of government.
It may be concluded that a pure democracy . . . can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction.
People will continue to seek justice until it is found, or until liberty is lost in the pursuit.
Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.
Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society.
In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights.
No error is more certain than the one proceeding from a hasty and superficial view of the subject.
Our country, if it does justice to itself, will be the workshop of liberty to the civilized world.
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.
It is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.
[I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed.
I have ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect.
The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.
Outlets for the freed blacks are alone wanted for the erasure of the blot from our Republican character.
War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.