To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.

What is called a republic, is not any particular form of government ... it is naturally opposed to the word monarchy, which means arbitrary power.

Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

...the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist.

There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.

Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.