Politics Quotes

"The genius of Republican government is to be found in the sovereignty of the people."

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people."

"The Constitution itself is excellent, but it is work in progress."

"The only cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy."

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offered a choice for public office, that the probability that he will be a bad president is several times higher than that he will be a good one."

"Legislation is the art of combining human selfishness for the public good."

"It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."

"Do you set up the heads of the departments as gods for us to worship?"

"It is not the office of a good magistrate to take sides in religious controversies."

"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, they are occasions in the human heart."

"Public virtue is the only foundation of Republics."

"The public safety is paramount to all other considerations."

"I am not a Federalist, because I believe the Constitution was a change for the worse."

"Mankind are not infallible and therefore the remedy of impeachment may be necessary."

"It was the opinion of the ablest patriots, that the public good was best promoted by the election of virtuous men."

"The happiness of a nation requires the destruction of liberty."

"A true patriot loves his country enough to challenge it when it strays from its principles."

"A nation prospers when it values both freedom and responsibility."

"Ambition is the fuel of nations, but it can also be their downfall if left unchecked."

"The fine line between patriotism and treason is drawn by circumstance and perspective."

"A nation survives not through the strength of its armies, but through the character of its people."

"The instant formal government is gone, society begins to act."

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government is but a necessary evil."

"It is the object only of writers on the arbitrary side of the question to hold up the King."

"The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous as the tyranny of the majority in a democracy."

"The body of the people, as opposed to individuals, is the supreme power of a democracy."

"I am not a Virginian, but an American."

"I am convinced that the object sought by the agitators in the North is to bring the South under Negro rule."

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government."

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid in this doctrine: That the powers of the Federal Government are limited by the Constitution itself."