Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature.

In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care.

A well-adjusted government should be a firm guardian of the nation’s property and interests, while allowing for the freedom of the individual.

The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people.

The public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and the measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.

The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests.

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.

It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires.

Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates.

The Union will be more happy, more respectable, and more durable, if all the parts of it consider themselves as mutual friends and fellow-citizens.