“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”

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.

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.

I never expect a perfect work from an imperfect man.

The masses are asses.

Have we not already seen enough of the fallacy and extravagance of those idle theories which have amused us with promises of an exemption from the imperfections, weaknesses and evils incident to society in every shape?

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

The pains taken to preserve peace include a proportional responsibility that equal pains be taken to be prepared for war.

In the general course of human nature, A power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.

The art of reading is to skip judiciously.

The best prayer I ever prayed had enough sin to damn the whole world.

The best form in which to worship God is every form.

What God says is best, is best, though all the men in the world are against it.

If seems almost un-American to enjoy delays, and perhaps enjoy is not the best word, but certainly a delayed flight

If a supernatural power tries to make you a saint or an emperor, refuse it, because the greatest beauty of life hides in having no position whatsoever! Positionless is the best position!

I still find the best way to understand a hospitalized patient is not by staring at the computer screen but by going to see the patient; it’s only at the bedside that I can figure out what is important.

The best thing about Valentine’s Day is that if you don’t have a lover, you badly remember to get one!

Forest is the best port of the wise man!