“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”

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.

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.

Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people.

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 protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.

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.

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.