A Man Can Be Trusted Only Up

We Are Not Sure We Are Right Until We Have Made The Best Case Possible For Those Who Are Wrong.

Limitation Is Essential To Authority. A Government Is Legitimate Only If It Is Effectively Limited.

Though Oppression May Give Rise To Violent And Repeated Outbreaks, Like The Convulsions Of A Man In Pain, It Cannot Mature A Settled Purpose And Plan Of Regeneration, Unless A New Notion Of Happiness Is Joined To The Sense Of Present Evil.

The History Of Institutions Is Often A History Of Deception And Illusions; For Their Virtue Depends On The Ideas That Produce And On The Spirit That Preserves Them, And The Form May Remain Unaltered When The Substance Has Passed Away.

Liberty, Next To Religion Has Been The Motive Of Good Deeds And The Common Pretext Of Crime, From The Sowing Of The Seed At Athens, 2,460 Years Ago, Until The Ripened Harvest Was Gathered By Men Of Our Race. It Is The Delicate Fruit Of A Mature Civilization; And Scarcely A Century Has Passed Since Nations, That Knew The Meaning Of The Term, Resolved To Be Free. In Every Age Its Progress Has Been Beset By Its Natural Enemies, By Ignorance And Superstition, By Lust Of Conquest And By Love Of Ease, By The Strong Man's Craving For Power, And The Poor Man's Craving For Food.