Now the good of political life is a great political good. It is not a secular good specified by a comprehensive doctrine like those of Kant or Mill. You could characterize this political good as the good of free and equal citizens recognizing the duty of civility to one another: the duty to give citizens public reasons for one's political actions.

You hear that liberalism lacks an idea of the common good, but I think that's a mistake.

I'm concerned about the survival, historically, of constitutional democracy.

The bad man desires arbitrary power. What moves the evil man is the love of injustice.

The sense of justice is continuous with the love of mankind.

How did Madison get separation through Virginia and later Congress? The Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the smaller sects hated Jefferson; to them he was a secularist of the worst kind. But Madison could get Jefferson's bill passed because the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and smaller sects who were excluded in New England and in the South got together for their own protection.

The fairest rules are those to which everyone would agree if they did not know how much power they would have.