A government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices, and ambitions of their leaders is a democracy.

A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.

No one ever became, or can become truly eloquent without being a reader of the Bible, and an admirer of the purity and sublimity of its language.

I consider biennial elections as a security that the sober, second thought of the people shall be law.

Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits . . . it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart, and on the influence all these produce on public opinion before that opinion governs rulers.

Liberty has never lasted long in a democracy, nor has it ever ended in anything better than despotism.

All such men are, or ought to be, agreed, that simple governments are despotisms; and of all despotisms, a democracy, though the least durable, is the most violent.