Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment.
There is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust.
As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
A certain degree of preparation for war . . . affords also the best security for the continuance of peace.
The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.
The primary function of government is to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority of the poor.
We are teaching the world the great truth that Governments do better without Kings & Nobles than with them.
The establishment of the chaplainship to Congress is a palpable violation of ... constitutional principles.
Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.
In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
The problem to be solved is, not what form of government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.
Procrastination in the beginning and precipitation towards the conclusion is the characteristic of such bodies.
The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself.
The citizens of the United States have peculiar motives to support the energy of their constitutional charters.
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse and in a republican government more than in any other.
[The public has] the habit now of invalidating opinions emanating from me by reference to my age and infirmities.
The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government.
Having outlived so many of my contemporaries, I ought not to forget that I may be thought to have outlived myself.
Every new and successful example of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance.
The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.
[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
I hope this will find you...enjoying the commencement of a new year with every prospect that can make it a happy one.
In framing a system, which we wish to last for ages, we should not lose sight of the changes which ages will produce.
In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by Power. In America ... charters of power [are] granted by liberty.
I flatter myself [we] have in this country extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.
It would have marked a want of foresight in the convention, which our own experience would have rendered inexcusable.
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.
The proposed Constitution is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both.
Respect for character is always diminished in proportion to the number among whom the blame or praise is to be divided.
As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.
The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished and perpetuated.
The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.
Where a majority are united by a common sentiment, and have an opportunity, the rights of the minor party become insecure.
The better proof of reverence for that holy name would be not to profane it by making it a topic of legislative discussion.
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.
Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.
The security intended to the general liberty consists in the frequent election and in the rotation of the members of Congress.
The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.
[Christianity] existed and flourishes, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them.
To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.
The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature.
A distinction of property results from that very protection which a free Government gives to unequal faculties of acquiring it.
It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.
Can it be of less consequence that the meaning of a Constitution should be fixed and known, than a meaning of a law should be so?
An efficient militia is authorized and contemplated by the Constitution and required by the spirit and safety of free government.
A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.