The genius of the people will ill brook the inquisitive and peremptory spirit of excise laws.

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.

Ignorance rises in our community because people do not utlize their common knowledge to express their thoughts to others that can be considered fair and rational.

Only those who transcend into another world, knows there.

Columbus's eggs lie around by the hundreds of thousands, but Columbuses are met with less frequency.

The great thing about the Internet is, it's the freest marketplace of ideas that there is.

At the very beginning, I was a page at Letterman, and I freelanced for any place that would let me write any word. I wanted to do this so badly.

Dialogue has to show not only something about the speaker that is its own revelation, but also maybe something about the speaker that he doesn't know but the other character does know.

Every writer has to write his speech.

Rich people see every dollar as a "seed" that can be planted to earn a hundred more dollars, which can then be replanted to earn a thousand more dollars.

They are in the very wrath of love, and they will go together. Clubs cannot part them