It is vain to say that enlightened statesmen will always be able to adjust their interests. Enlightened men will not always be at the helm.

A victorious and powerful ally is but another name for a master.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

Precedents once established are so much positive power.

The free system of government we have established is so congenial with reason, with common sense, and with a universal feeling, that it must produce approbation and a desire of imitation, as avenues may be found for truth to the knowledge of nations.

By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest... The latent causes of faction are sown in the nature of man.

The primary function of government is to protect the minority of the opulent from the majority of the poor.