Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.

decency.

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.