Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.

The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.

History is not only a particular branch of knowledge, but a particular mode and method of knowledge in other branches.

Absolute power demoralizes.

If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.

Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.

Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.