Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
From John Adams
I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.
Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.
Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
A government of laws, and not of men.
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