It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please . . . . Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It [the Constitution] was intended to lace them up straightly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.

For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal.

A good cause is often injured more by ill-timed efforts of its friends than by the arguments of its enemies. Persuasion, perseverance and patience are the best advocates on questions depending on the will of others.

Let the farmer forevermore be honored in his calling; for they who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God.

That government that governs least governs best.

the boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them.

If by religion we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is just, "that this would be the best of worlds if there were no religion in it.