“Unless your government is respectable, foreigners will invade your rights; and to maintain tranquillity, it must be respectable – even to observe neutrality, you must have a strong government.”

The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and, however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true to fact. The people are turbulent and changing, they seldom judge or determine right.

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

Dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government.

Vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty.

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

You should not have taken advantage of my sensibility to steal into my affections without my consent.

Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.

I always feel how necessary you are to me. But when you are absent, I become still more sensible of it and look around in vain for that satisfaction which you alone can bestow.

Men are reasoning rather than reasonable animals.

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

Who talks most about freedom and equality? Is it not those who hold the bill of rights in one hand and a whip for affrighted slaves in the other?

Nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of Government.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

The taxpayer – that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.

Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government.

Universal suffrage is the government of a house by its nursery.

Democracy is not a form of government, but a form of social organisation.

Anyway I don’t think we can rely on governments, regardless of who is in power, to do the work that only mass movements can do.

If more government is the answer, then it was a really stupid question.

The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.