Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

The essence of Government is power and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.