No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.

A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must, in practice, be a bad government.

One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

And it is no less true, that personal security and private property rest entirely upon the wisdom, the stability, and the integrity of the courts of justice.

There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.

The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic.

It should therefore be difficult in a republic to declare war; but not to make peace.

How easily men satisfy themselves that the Constitution is exactly what they wish it to be

It is important also to consider, that the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace.

Piety, religion, and morality are intimately connected with the well being of that state, and indispensable to the administration of civil justice.

In my very first interview, at nine years old, I said I wanted to be an Olympic gold medalist. That was the first time I said it out loud in front of somebody other than my parents.

Every story teaches you how to write that story but not the next story.

Harder he works, the luckier he gets.

More than anything, I think the best thing you can do as an artist is just stay as true to yourself as possible and hope that your fan base will appreciate that.

Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.

I take the ethical truths to be the stable elements that emerge out of ethical progress and that are retained under further ethical progress.

The older I get, the more I look at movies as a moving miracle.

I've taken my knocks here and there, but I believe my intentions are good. Doesn't mean everything I do is perfectly executed or I don't make mistakes. Of course I do.

The only way I knew I was ready to come out was I was being driven crazy by the fact that I was not out.

Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so contemptible as the public that buys their books.