Great Ambition, unchecked by principle, or the love of Glory, is an unruly Tyrant.

There is one transcendant advantage belonging to the province of the State governments . . . -I mean the ordinary administration of criminal and civil justice.

Is it not time to awake from the deceitful dream of a golden age, and to adopt as a practical maxim for the direction of our political conduct, that we, as well as the other inhabitants of the globe, are yet remote from the happy empire of perfect wisdom and perfect virtue?

Opinion, whether well or ill-founded, is the governing principle of human affairs

In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.

We are now forming a republican government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

It has been observed, [that for the federal government] to coerce the States is one of the maddest projects that was ever devised.