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

Disarm the people- that is the best and most effective way to enslave them.

In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.

Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

I do not conceive that power is given to the President and Senate to dismember the empire, or to alienate any great, essential right. I do not think the whole legislative authority have this power. The exercise of the power must be consistent with the object of the delegation.

The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.

[Christianity] existed and flourishes, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them.