I Never Engaged In Public Affairs For

[a] Republic . . . [is] A Government, In Which The Property Of The Public, Or People, And Of Every One Of Them Was Secure And Protected By Law . . . Implies Liberty; Because Property Cannot Be Secured Unless The Man Be At Liberty To Acquire, Use Or Part With It, At His Discretion, And Unless He Have His Personal Liberty Of Life And Limb, Motion And Rest, For That Purpose.

It Is More Important That Innocence Be Protected Than It Is That Guilt Be Punished, For Guilt And Crimes Are So Frequent In This World That They Cannot All Be Punished. But If Innocence Itself Is Brought To The Bar And Condemned, Perhaps To Die, Then The Citizen Will Say, "whether I Do Good Or Whether I Do Evil Is Immaterial, For Innocence Itself Is No Protection," And If Such An Idea As That Were To Take Hold In The Mind Of The Citizen That Would Be The End Of Security Whatsoever.

Resistance To Sudden Violence, For The Preservation Not Only Of My Person, My Limbs, And Life, But Of My Property, Is An Indisputable Right Of Nature Which I Have Never Surrendered To The Public By The Compact Of Society, And Which Perhaps, I Could Not Surrender If I Would.

I Didn't Grow Up Imagining Myself As An Opera Composer. Only Once In My Entire Adolescence Did I Attend An Opera. I Went And Saw Aida At The Old Met, Didn't Understand A Thing About It, And Thought It Was Pretty Awful. But I Think I Had It In My Genes Without Even Realising It.

This Would Be The Best Of All Possible Worlds, If There Were No Religion In It.