“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
Men“To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.”
Government“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
Men“The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
Trust“What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?”
Learning“To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.”
Government“In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.”
Great“I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property.”
Government“And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”
Government“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.”
Power“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.”
Government“Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.”
War“The essence of Government is power and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”
Government“Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.”
Best“War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.”
War“All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.”
Men“The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science.”
Science“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.”
Power“Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.”
Power“If we are to take for the criterion of truth the majority of suffrages, they ought to be gotten from those philosophic and patriotic citizens who cultivate their reason.”
Truth“No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
Freedom“The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.”
Money