Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure - but the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico, or tobacco, or some other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest, and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with other reverence, because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Law and arbitrary power are at eternal enmity.

The essence of tyranny is the enforcement of stupid laws.

In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows.

True humility-the basis of the Christian system-is the low but deep and firm foundation of all virtues.