A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of Government.
An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stigmatized, as the offspring of a temper fond of despotic power, and hostile to the principles of liberty.
I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man.
People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.
To my utter astonishment I saw an airship descending over my cow lot. It was occupied by six of the strangest beings I ever saw. They were jabbering together, but we could not understand a word they said...
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men.
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.
It’s not tyranny we desire; it’s a just, limited, federal government.
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.
Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.
I would die to preserve the law upon a solid foundation; but take away liberty, and the foundation is destroyed.
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
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.
Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.
A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.
Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.
For my part, I sincerely esteem the Constitution, a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.