[The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government.

The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.

When habit has strengthened our sense of duties, they leave us no time for other things; but when young we neglect them and this gives us time for anything.

The past stays put, I just keep moving farther away from it.

All power is inherent in the people.

If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.

I acknowledge that such a debt [of service to my fellow-citizens] exists, that a tour of duty in whatever line he can be most useful to his country, is due from every individual. It is not easy perhaps to say of what length exactly that tour should be, but we may safely say of what length it should not be. Not of our whole life, for instance, for that would be to be born a slave-not even of a very large portion of it.