No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.

It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.

It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.

A constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made afterwards by that government are to a court of judicature. The court of judicature does not make the laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made: and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution.

When authors and critics talk of the sublime, they see not how nearly it borders on the ridiculous.

It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.