If we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?

The consequences arising from the continual accumulation of public debts in other countries ought to admonish us to prevent their growth in our own.

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. What a Utopia! What a paradise this region would be.

Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.

I didn't grow up imagining myself as an opera composer. Only once in my entire adolescence did I attend an opera. I went and saw Aida at the old Met, didn't understand a thing about it, and thought it was pretty awful. But I think I had it in my genes without even realising it.

The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.

[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.