Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty.
The Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume.
If the measures which have been pursued are approved by the majority, it is the duty of the minority to acquiesce and conform.
Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
The cutting of heads is become so much a la mode, that one is apt to feel of a morning whether their own is on their shoulders.
Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself.
I have always said that a studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.
Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.
It is wonderful to me that old men should not be sensible that their minds keep pace with their bodies in the progress of decay.
We discover in the gospels a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication .
If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.
We must train and classify the whole of our male citizens, and make military instruction a regular part of collegiate education.
The Constitution is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.
No stile of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one.
Health, learning and virtue will ensure your happiness; they will give you a quiet conscience, private esteem and public honour.
I wish to see this beverage become common instead of the whiskey which kills sone-third of our citizens and ruins their families.
I have learned to be less confident in the conclusions of human reason, and give more credit to the honesty of contrary opinions.
I apprehend... that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices of President and Senator will end in abuse.
The protection of our citizens, the spirit and honor of our country, require that force should be interposed to a certain degree.
I hope the terms of Excellency, Honor, Worship, Esquire, forever disappear from among us... I wish that of Mr. would follow them.
The law for religious freedom... [has]put down the aristocracy of the clergy and restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind.
the boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them.
Above all I hope that the education of the common people will be attended to so they won't forget the basic principles of freedom.
I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.
The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.
Inspirational Quotes on: Honesty, Simplicity, Secret, Universe, Modesty, Peace Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.
Communities should be planned with an eye to the effect on the human spirit of being continually surrounded by a maximum of beauty.
The equal rights of man and the happiness of every individual are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government.
Man ... feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every day.
The religion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticism, fancies, and falsehoods.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.
My theory has always been, that if we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair.
None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important.
The persons and property of our citizens are entitled to the protection of our government in all places where they may lawfully go.
A determination never to do what is wrong, prudence, and good-humor, will go far toward securing to you the estimation of the world.
The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management.
Error is to be pitied and pardoned: it is the weakness of human nature. But vice is a foul blemish, not pardonable in any character.
Government is being founded on opinion, the opinion of the public, even when it is wrong, ought to be respected to a certain degree.
One single object . . . [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.
I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.
Taxation is, in fact, the most difficult function of government and that against which their citizens are most apt to be refractory.
The general (federal) government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day, instead of working its own cures.
I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.