There is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding and a well-protected pursuit.

Education is the cheap defense of nations.

Religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort.

For as wealth is power, so all power will infallibly draw wealth to itself by some means or other; and when men are left no way of ascertaining their profits but by their means of obtaining them, those means will be increased to infinity.

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.

Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by too confident a security.

In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.