“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”

A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.

That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.

All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former.

In no instance have… the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.

By rendering the labor of one, the property of the other, they cherish pride, luxury, and vanity on one side; on the other, vice and servility, or hatred and revolt.

Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

We want you to sit down and leave your egos at home and let’s get an understanding as to where all this is foolishness coming from.

It’s interesting because you feel on the one hand, we understand people from what the say, and in another sense.

Poetry is an extra hand. It can caress or tickle. It can clench and fight.

We girls, on the other hand, aim really high. We take a leap.

A handwritten letter carries a lot of risk. It’s a one-sided conversation that reveals the truth of the writer.

This should tell you everything you need to know about guys.

The weakest ink is better than the best memory. Study with pen in hand.

Let go of this world and take hold of God with both hands.