“Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.”

A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest Man without the fear of God.

Every object is beautiful in motion; a ship under sail, trees gently agitated with the wind, and a fine woman dancing, are three instances in point

If much depends as is allowed upon the early Education of youth and the first principals which are instill’d take the deepest root

And bless the tranquil inhabitants, equally guarded and protected, in person and property, in this happy Country, as those who reside in the most elegant and costly dwellings.

To be good, and do good, is the whole duty of man comprised in a few words.

When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant

If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.

These are the times when a genius wants to live.

Many of our disappointments and much of our unhappiness arise from our forming false notions of things and persons.

Let your observations and comparisons produce in your mind an abhorrence of domination and power

But let no person say what they would or would not do, since we are not judges for ourselves until circumstances call us to act.

I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries, ‘Give, give.’

What is the history of mighty kingdoms and nations, but a detail of the ravages and cruelties of the powerful over the weak?

May justice and righteousness be the stability of our times, and order arise out of confusion. Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.

I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature.

A people fired with love of their country and of liberty, a zeal for the public good, and a noble emulation of glory, will not be disheartened or dispirited by a succession of unfortunate events.

No matter how many times your amazing, absolutely brilliant work is rejected by the client, for whatever dopey, arbitrary reason, there is often another amazing, absolutely brilliant solution possible. Sometimes it’s even better.

No language is as depending on arbitrary use and custom can ever be permanently the same, but will always be in a mutable and fluctuating state; and what is deem’d polite and elegant in one age, may be accounted uncouth and barbarous in another.

Inflation is the fiscal complement of statism and arbitrary government. It is a cog in the complex of policies and institutions which gradually lead toward totalitarianism .

It seems to me that evolution adds greatly to the wonder of life because it takes it out of the realm of the arbitrary, the exceptional, and links it to the sequence of natural causation.

There is nothing to guarantee the superior judgment, knowledge, and integrity of an inspector or a bureaucrat-and the deadly consequences of entrusting him with arbitrary power are obvious.

Every physicist knows that things connect with each other. To isolate things is not the way the universe works – winning best actor is arbitrary.

I wanted to make a movie about the arbitrary nature of love.

I started thinking about gender and how it’s an arbitrary thing if you’re born with an XX or XY chromosome, but it can determine your experience of the world. It’s about whether you are physically intimidating vs. being physically intimidated. It determines whether you are the one to take an active role in sex and society.