A certain degree of preparation for war . . . affords also the best security for the continuance of peace.

A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.

If we advert to the nature of republican government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the government, and not in the government over the people.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.

[Montesquieu] lifted the veil from the venerable errors which enslaved opinion, and pointed the way to those luminous truths of which he had but a glimpse himself.

Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic.