Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community.

To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.

We came equals into this world, and equals shall we go out of it.

Considering the natural lust for power so inherent in man, I fear the thirst of power will prevail to oppress the people.

Don't wait around for your life to happen to you. Find something that makes you happy, and do it. Because everything else is all just background noise.

Those gentlemen, who will be elected senators, will fix themselves in the federal town, and become citizens of that town more than of your state.

No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued. Shall any man be above Justice?

No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.

That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.

Poverty is uncomfortable as I can testify: but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself.

Man is a social animal.

I'm sorry.' The two most inadequate words in the English language.

We seldom praise anyone in good earnest, except such as admire us.

Science deals exclusively with things as they are in themselves; and art exclusively with things as they affect the human sense and human soul.

It so often happened to me that someone who shared my opinion kept the larger share for himself that I am now forewarned and offer people only ideas.

Is your work an interpretation of your understanding of reality, or is it simply a picture of your feelings?

If you take missions out of the Bible, you won't have anything left but the covers.

You have to get beyond blaming others . . . give up your excuses . . . stand responsible for what you do . . . ultimately, ethics ends up an individual exercise.

It's really fun to be in a film that's pure entertainment, that people want to go and see. I think, in the current climate, the state of things, people want escapism.