All quotes

No body can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power over it.

It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.

Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.

Any broader view of this authority would effectively empower a majority to silence dissidents simply as a matter of personal predilections.

The constitutional right of free expression is powerful medicine in a society as diverse and populous as ours.

The mountains are calling and I must go, and I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.

The most respectful deference is due to doubts originating in pure patriotism and sustained by venerated authority.

Remember, then, that I, at least, have warned you, that the happiness of your life, and its power, and its part and rank in earth or in heaven, depend on the way you pass your days now.

Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end.

Only an unmitigated despotism demands that the individual citizen shall obey unconditionally every mandate of persons in authority.

The interest of the people is that there should be full liberty of censure on every public officer, and on every public act or measure.

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.

The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way

A Sultan's favourite slave has slaves under her, over whom she tyrannizes; but the desirable thing would be that she should neither have slaves nor be a slave.

In all public expenditures the most rigid economy should be resorted to, and, as one of its results, a public debt in time of peace be sedulously avoided.

In regard to foreign nations, the groundwork of my policy will be justice on our part to all, submitting to injustice from none.

In this the Endowments of Men are so employed, that the Friend and the Governor are united in one, and oppressive Customs come to an End.

There was a Care on my Mind so to pass my Time, that nothing might hinder me from the most steady Attention to the Voice of the true Shepherd.

Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others.

The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color.

The observed worker should be made to realize the purpose and importance of the measurement.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.