Quotes About Power

Every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact casus non faederis to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits. Without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them

All is politics in this capital.

If Americans ever allow banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless.

Responsibility is a tremendous engine in a free government

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others

The greatest calamity which could befall us would be submission to a government of unlimited powers

I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

There is...an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents.... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provisions should be made to prevent its ascendancy.

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

A republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible.

The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

Experience has shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

The second office of the government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery.

When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy the first is but a splendid misery.

No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.