Envy is the basis of democracy.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.