Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
[Exchange] the galling burden of bachelorship for the easy yoke of matrimony.
If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?
What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
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.
Our opinions agree as to the evil, moral, political, and economical, of slavery.
Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves.
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.
[Property] embraces everything to which a man may attach a value and have a right.
The express authority of the people alone could give validity to the Constitution.
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.
Equal laws protecting equal rights…the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.
The growing wealth aquired by them corporations never fails to be a source of abuses.
In all great changes of established governments, forms ought to give way to substance
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.
The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.
I have ever regarded the freedom of religious opinions and worship as equally belonging to every sect.
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.
The President is responsible to the public for the conduct of the person he has nominated and appointed.
The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property.
Outlets for the freed blacks are alone wanted for the erasure of the blot from our Republican character.