How can you trust people who are poor and own no property? ... Inequality of property will exist as long as liberty exists.

People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.

Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.

When a government betrays the people by amassing too much power and becoming tyrannical, the people have no choice but to exercise their original right of self-defense — to fight the government.

One great error is that we suppose mankind more honest than they are.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one.

Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence.

It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government.

Yes, there's a luck in most things; and in none more than being born at the right time.

Sacrificers are not the ones to pity. The ones to pity are those they sacrifice.

A man in music, as one in love, either lives it or talks about it; seldom both.

Cowards do not count in battle; they are there, but not in it.

Human misery is so appalling nowadays that if we allowed ourselves to dwell on it we should only add imaginary miseries of our own to the real miseries of others without doing them any good.

California, in a sense, is almost Starbucks' largest country, with almost 3,000 stores.

The beauty of art is that there are no rules

Being famous as a writer is like being famous in a village. It's not really any very heady fame.

One cannot offend, make war, kill in the name of one's own religion, that is, in the name of God.

The way his plump hand clutched at her hip seemed somehow improper; not morally, aesthetically.