Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.

War is the matter which fills all history; and consequently the only, or almost the only, view in which we can see the external of political society is in a hostile shape: and the only actions to which we have always seen, and still see, all of them intent, are such as tend to the destruction of one another.

Society is indeed a contract. ... It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection.

Whatever each man can separately do, without trespassing upon others, he has a right to do for himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all which society, with all it combinations of skill and force, can do in his favor. In this partnership all men have equal rights; but not to equal things.

Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found.

Genuine simplicity of heart is a healing and cementing principle.

Silence is golden but when it threatens your freedom it's yellow.