104 quotes
But what is Government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
Federalist Papers (1787)
The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.
Federalist Papers (1787)
Slavery is, as you justly complain, a sad blot on our free country.
Letter to Lafayette (1821)
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
The Constitution requires an adoption in toto, and for ever.
Letter to Alexander Hamilton (1788)
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
Federalist Papers (1787)
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
Federalist Papers (1787)
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.
Federalist Papers (1787)
The accumulation of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
Federalist Papers (1787)
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
Where slavery exists, the republican theory becomes still more fallacious.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
In republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.
Speech at the Virginia Convention (1829)
The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
The Debates in the Federal Convention (1787)
Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear.
With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them.
As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
The great evil under which the nation labors.
A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.