We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.

A vice sanctioned by the general opinion is merely a vice. The evil terminates in itself. A vice condemned by the general opinion produces a pernicious effect on the whole character. The former is a local malady; the latter, constitutional taint. When the reputation of the offender is lost, he too often flings the remainder of his virtue after it in despair.

History, is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires.

The upper current of society presents no pertain criterion by which we can judge of the direction in which the under current flows.

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.

Great minds do indeed react on the society which has made them what they are; but they only pay with interest what they have received.

It may be laid as an universal rule that a government which attempts more than it ought will perform less.