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

For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power?

It is a misfortune incident to republican government, though in a less degree than to other governments, that those who administer it, may forget their obligations to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust.

Can it be of less consequence that the meaning of a Constitution should be fixed and known, than a meaning of a law should be so?

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties.

It may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more constant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.