It may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more constant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves.

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.

You couldn’t live close to war and not have it grab you eventually.

By things so achingly small are lives measured and marred.

We are free, but we are not equal. We are free, but not as free as other people in this land are free.

I've said it before, but it's absolutely true: My mother gave me my drive, but my father gave me my dreams. Thanks to him, I could see a future.

Funny, how moms can tell you what to do no matter how old or big you are.

But this is neither here nor there why do I mention it? Ask my pen, it governs me, I govern not it.

It was really dreadful to be so different from other people…and yet rather wonderful, too, as if you were a being strayed from another star.

Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked.

Jazz is the favorite music [of America]. It is a type of music invented by [American] Blacks to please their primitive tendencies and desire for noise.

I don't believe in talking down to children. I don't believe in talking down to any certain segment.