Political Philosophy Quotes

"We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties" "Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America." "Conservatism is not so much a banner of principles as a disposition of things and persons" "When liberty is mentioned, we must always be careful to observe whether it is not really the assertion of private interest which is thereby designated." "During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe they are in that condition which is called war and such a war as is of every man against every man" "It is not wisdom but authority that makes a law" "I don't believe there is a powerful and mysterious 'popular will', a common will that expresses itself inexorably in spite of repression." "The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long and no longer than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them." "Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure" "By covenant only, that is to say, by mutual contract, he becomes subject to civil laws." "In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival." "Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society" "Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty" "Poverty in democracy is as much to be preferred to so-called prosperity under despots, as freedom to slavery." "The ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the people alone" "If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within" "In framing a government, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself" "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. " "In our governments, the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents." "A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person"