If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.
- Thomas Jefferson
More Quotes By Thomas Jefferson
The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as... Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon... Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.
Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at... It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to... The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness.... Our tenet ever was . . . that Congress had not unlimited powers to provide for the general... The sheep are happier of themselves, than under the care of wolves.
It is an axiom in my mind that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands... Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to which the people... If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to... The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working under ground... One single object . . . [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the... To consider judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and... To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, ‘to...
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