Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.
A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.
The nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one.
As to religion a moderate stock will satisfy me. She must believe in god and hate a saint.
[A] power equal to every possible contingency must exist somewhere in the government . . .
Those who have a tolerable knowledge of human nature will not stand in need of such lights.
No character, however upright, is a match for constantly reiterated attacks, however false.
A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired.
The system is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit.
Laws are a dead letter without courts to expound and define their true meaning and operation.
The genius of the people will ill brook the inquisitive and peremptory spirit of excise laws.
Civil liberty is only natural liberty, modified and secured by the sanctions of civil society.
Every individual of the community at large has an equal right to the protection of government.
Schemes to subvert the liberties of a great community require time to mature them for execution.
The obscurity is much oftener in the passions and prejudices of the reasoner than in the subject.
In the main it will be found that a power over a man's support [salary] is a power over his will.
It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.
Hard words are very rarely useful. Real firmness is good for every thing. Strut is good for nothing.
You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.
Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.
People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.
Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.
The honor of a nation is its life. Deliberately to abandon it is to commit an act of political suicide.
Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.
Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known and less fixed?
In the general course of human nature, A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.
Let experience, the least fallible guide of human opinion, be appealed to for an answer to these inquiries.
The powers contained in a constitution...ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good.
The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.
Little more can reasonably be aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them properly armed.
Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence.
I propose . . . . The conformity of the proposed Constitution to the true principles of republican government.
They are not rules prescribed by the sovereign to the subject, but agreements between sovereign and sovereign.
A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.
We are attempting, by this Constitution, to abolish factions, and to unite all parties for the general welfare.
The treaties of the United States, to have any force at all, must be considered as part of the law of the land.
I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.
[W]e must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens - the only proper objects of government.
Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.
It will follow that that government ought to be clothed with all powers requisite to complete execution of its trust.
The superiority...enjoyed by nations that have...perfected a branch of industry, constitutes a...formidable obstacle.
Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.
That there may happen cases in which the national government may be necessitated to resort to force, cannot be denied.
The Achaeans soon experienced, as often happens, that a victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master.
[Imeachable conduct is] misconduct by public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.
The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.
To presume a want of motives for such contests . . . would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.
How can you trust people who are poor and own no property? ... Inequality of property will exist as long as liberty exists.