The quote database

The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.

The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness.

My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will.

The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press

the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.

No body can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power over it.

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule.

It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.

One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.

A good despotism is an altogether false ideal, which practically (except as a means to some temporary purpose) becomes the most senseless and dangerous of chimeras.

Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers.

Denial of the right to experiment may be fraught with serious consequences to the nation.

It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.

For equal work equally well performed by a man and by a woman, it is ordained that the woman on the ground of her sex alone shall receive a less recompense.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them

Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people.

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles

Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?

A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.

No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.

Desire is a manifestation of power.

Never with my consent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the pliant instrument of Executive will.

It is in periods like this that it behooves the people to be most watchful of those to whom they have intrusted power.