Despotism can only exist in darkness.

The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.

Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed populace.

Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.

If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within.

The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security.

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.

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

The thing stank of unnamed yearnings, unfulfilled wishes, and a hunger so deep it make her feel hollow inside.

If you have to beg someone to be in your life, they don't belong there.

Behind all the surface composure, there seemed to be a great darkness: an urge to test himself, to take risks, to haunt the edges of things.

If many people follow your enthusiastic endeavours, perhaps a new Athens might be created in the land of the Franks, or rather a much better one.

Happiness is a habit—cultivate it.

This was not of the nature of a Christlike lesson for Owen Meany to learn, as he lay in the manger, that someone you hate can give you a hard-on.

Golf is golf. You hit the ball, you go find it. Then you hit it again.

Life is a Sisyphean race, run ever faster toward a finish line that is merely the start of the next race

Your money, or your life. We know what to do when a burglar makes this demand of us, but not when God does.

Kids chase the love that eludes them, and for me, that was my father's love. He kept it tucked away, like papers in a briefcase. And I kept trying to get in there.