The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is ingulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them.

I had rather ask an enlargement of power from the nation, where it is found necessary, than to assume it by a construction which would make our powers boundless.

The only greater [evil] than separation... [is] living under a government of discretion.

A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?

Happiness is not being pained in body or troubled in mind.

Every gentleman plays billiards, but someone who plays billiards too well, is no gentleman.