 The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. |
| There is no maxim, in my opinion, which is more liable to be misapplied, and which, therefore, more needs elucidation, than the current one, that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong. |
| We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties. |
| The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. |
| To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression. |
| Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government. |
| In no instance have... the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people. |
| 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. |
| As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. |
| All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former. |
| America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts. |
| A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country. |
| 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? |
