Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

Liberty is the prevention of control by others.

Liberty is the harmony between the will and the law.

The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.

Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.