I Think The First Duty Of Society

Eternal Vigilance Is The Price Of Liberty; Power Is Ever Stealing From The Many To The Few. The Manna Of Popular Liberty Must Be Gathered Each Day Or It Is Rotten. The Living Sap Of Today Outgrows The Dead Rind Of Yesterday. The Hand Entrusted With Power Becomes, Either Form Human Depravity Or Esprit De Corps, The Necessary Enemy Of The People. Only By Continued Oversight Can The Democrat In Office Be Prevented From Hardening Into A Despot; Only By Unintermitted Agitation Can A People Be Sufficiently Awake To Principle Not To Let Liberty Be Smothered In Material Prosperity.

To Be As Good As Our Fathers, We Must Be Better. Imitation Is Not Discipleship. When Some One Sent A Cracked Plate To China To Have A Set Made, Every Piece In The New Set Had A Crack In It.

Do Not Take The Yardstick Of Your Ignorance To Measure What The Ancients Knew, And Call Everything Which You Do Not Know Lies. Do Not Call Things Untrue Because They Are Marvelous, But Give Them A Fair Consideration.

Governments Exist To Protect The Rights Of Minorities. The Loved And The Rich Need No Protection: They Have Many Friends And Few Enemies.

To Hear Some Men Talk Of The Government, You Would Suppose That Congress Was The Law Of Gravitation, And Kept The Planets In Their Places.