Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master!

Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people; they fix too for the people the principles of their political creed.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

Every man has two countries: his own and France.

The President is bound to stop at the limits prescribed by our Constitution and law to the authorities in his hands, [and this] would apply in an occasion of peace as well as war.

Health, learning and virtue will ensure your happiness; they will give you a quiet conscience, private esteem and public honour.

We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.