Absolute Power Demoralizes.

Liberty Is Not A Means To A Higher Political End. It Is Itself The Highest Political End...liberty Is The Only Object Which Benefits All Alike, And Provokes No Sincere Opposition...the Danger Is Not That A Particular Class Is Unfit To Govern. ~ Every Class Is Unfit To Govern ... Power Tends To Corrupt, And Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. Great Men Are Almost Always Bad Men.

Democracy Generally Monopolizes And Concentrates Power.

Liberty, Next To Religion Has Been The Motive Of Good Deeds And The Common Pretext Of Crime, From The Sowing Of The Seed At Athens, 2,460 Years Ago, Until The Ripened Harvest Was Gathered By Men Of Our Race. It Is The Delicate Fruit Of A Mature Civilization; And Scarcely A Century Has Passed Since Nations, That Knew The Meaning Of The Term, Resolved To Be Free. In Every Age Its Progress Has Been Beset By Its Natural Enemies, By Ignorance And Superstition, By Lust Of Conquest And By Love Of Ease, By The Strong Man's Craving For Power, And The Poor Man's Craving For Food.

The History Of Institutions Is Often A History Of Deception And Illusions; For Their Virtue Depends On The Ideas That Produce And On The Spirit That Preserves Them, And The Form May Remain Unaltered When The Substance Has Passed Away.

Judge Not According To The Orthodox Standard Of A System Religious, Philosophical, Political, But According As Things Promote, Or Fail To Promote The Delicacy, Integrity, And Authority Of Conscience.