A single assembly will never be a steady guardian of the laws, if Machiavel is right, when he says, Men are never good but through necessity: on the contrary, when good and evil are left to their choice, they will not fail to throw every thing into disorder and confusion. Hunger and poverty may make men industrious, but laws only can make them good; for, if men were so of themselves, there would be no occasion for laws; but, as the case is far otherwise, they are absolutely necessary.

When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systematic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes.

I am determined to control events, not be controlled by them.

The Constitution is ...the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.