The Convention probably foresaw what it has been a principal aim of these papers to inculcate that the danger which most threatens our political welfare is, that the state governments will finally sap the foundations of the Union.

[I]n framing a Government for a nation we ought, in those provisions which are designed to be permanent, to calculate not on temporary, but on permanent causes of expence.

Experience is the oracle of truth; and where its responses are unequivocal, they ought to be conclusive and sacred.

Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has, at all times, characterized political parties.

No man in his senses can hesitate in choosing to be free, rather than a slave.

It is in vain to hope to guard against events too mighty for human foresight or precaution, and it would be idle to object to a government because it could not perform impossibilities.

Ambition without principle never was long under the guidance of good sense.