No right can come by conquest, unless there were a right of making that conquest.

[I]f vice and corruption prevail, liberty cannot subsist; but if virtue have the advantage, arbitrary power cannot be established.

[L]iberty cannot be preserved, if the manners of the people are corrupted . . .

That is the best Government, which best provides for war.

Many things are unknown to the wisest, and the best men can never wholly divest themselves of passions and affections... nothing can or ought to be permanent but that which is perfect.

God leaves to Man the choice of Forms in Government; and those who constitute one Form, may abrogate it.

I will believe in the right of one man to govern a nation despotically when I find a man born unto the world with boots and spurs, and a nation with saddles on their backs.