The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.
A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.
The means of defence agst. foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.
A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.
it was impossible to confine a Government to the exercise of express powers; there must necessarily be admitted powers by implication, unless the Constitution descended to recount every minutia
The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security.
As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
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.
Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.
The essence of Government is power and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.
Philosophy is common sense with big words.
Every nation whose affairs betray a want of wisdom and stability may calculate on every loss which can be sustained from the more systematic policy of its wiser neighbors.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
The class of citizens who provide at once their own food and their own raiment, may be viewed as the most truly independent and happy.
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.