6 quotes
The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)
It must be made a sacred maxim, that the militia obey the executive power, which represents the whole people in the execution of laws.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)
The proposition, that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties, is not true; they are the worst conceivable; they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)
There never was yet a people who must not have somebody or something to represent the dignity of the state, the majesty of the people, call it what you will — a doge, an avoyer, an archon, a president, a consul, a syndic; this becomes at once an object of ambition and dispute, and, in time, of division, faction, sedition, and rebellion.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)
The rich, the well-born, and the able, acquire an influence among the people that will soon be too much for simple honesty and plain sense, in a house of representatives. The most illustrious of them must, therefore, be separated from the mass, and placed by themselves in a senate; this is, to all honest and useful intents, an ostracism.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)