... large and permanent military establishments ... are forbidden by the principles of free government, and against the necessity of which the militia were meant to be a constitutional bulwark.

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.

Achievements must be highlights and not forgotten. So you always will have to rely in something on your frustrations.

I have found more inspiration in the cottages of fishermen than in the palaces of the rich.

Why do you pray if you doubt you are heard?

To hope is to contradict the future.

The water reached up for her, pulled her down tenderly out of the heat, seeped in her hair and ran into the corners of her body. She turned round and round in it, embracing it, wallowing in it.

When you're my age and you see a story, you better go for it pretty quickly. I'd just like to get a few more novels under my belt.

Passion in a dromedary doesn't go so deep; a camel when it's mating never sobs itself to sleep.

I came, I saw, she conquered." The original Latin seems to have been garbled.

Styles may change, details may come and go, but the broad demands of aesthetic judgement are permanent.

In the early '80s, I was blown away when I began to hear some of the earliest hip-hop songs, and I'm fascinated by all the permutations the genre has gone through.