Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
All persons possessing any portion of power ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with an idea that they act in trust, and that they are to account for their conduct in that trust to the one great Master, Author, and Founder of society.
There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.
This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature.
That the greatest security of the people, against the encroachments and usurpations of their superiors, is to keep the Spirit of Liberty constantly awake, is an undeniable truth
The marketplace obliges men, whether they will or not, in pursuing their own selfish interests, to connect the general good with their own individual success.
If the prudence of reserve and decorum dictates silence in some circumstances, in others prudence of a higher order may justify us in speaking our thoughts.
Responsibility prevents crimes.
What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!
General rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were encouraged now or at any time. They are always provoked.
The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.
Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.
A populace never rebels from passion for attack, but from impatience of suffering.
Man is by his constitution a religious animal.
The public interest requires doing today those things that men of intelligence and good will would wish, five or ten years hence, had been done.
He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.
The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is vanity; the rest is crime.
It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.
Law and arbitrary power are at eternal enmity.
Liberty, without wisdom, is license.
The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.
Education is the cheap defense of nations.
To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed toward a love to our country and to mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangement is a trust in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away for their own personal advantage.
Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.
In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority...and that oppression of the majority will extend to far great number, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings; but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind, overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species.
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