The quote database

What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government,--that is despotism.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.

If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the Government must cease.

His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor.

The engine can arrange and combine its numerical quantities exactly as if they were letters or any other general symbols; and in fact it might bring out its results in algebraical notation, were provisions made accordingly.

Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.

the liberty of association is become a necessary guarantee against the tyranny of the majority

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power.

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority.

The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.

Our Constitution does not contain the absurdity of giving power to make laws, and another power to resist them.

The loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union.

The powers of patronage and rule which would have been exercised, under the President, over a vast and populous and naturally wealthy region are greater than, unless under extreme necessity, I should be willing to intrust to any one man.

The Constitution to which life was thus imparted contains within itself ample resources for its own preservation.

Now military governments, established for an indefinite period, would have offered no security for the early suppression of discontent, would have divided the people into the vanquishers and the vanquished, and would have envenomed hatred rather than have restored affection.

The ancient republics absorbed the individual in the state--prescribed his religion and controlled his activity.

Nay, ’tis woman’s strongest vindication for speaking that the world needs to hear her voice.

our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint

No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense of public honor or by rude and indecent methods without protest and fatal disaffection in its own body.

They will presently themselves be compelled to appeal to the law for protection, and those who would use the law as a defense must not deny that use of it to others.

The man who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler's hat has renounced his allegiance.

Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil.

The Government can not successfully insure prosperity or fix prices by legislative fiat.

The whole theory of our institutions is based on the liberty and independence of the individual.