Quotes about Citizens

We call laws just from three perspectives: (1) from their end, namely, when they are ordained for the common good; (2) from their authority, namely, when the laws enacted do not surpass the power of the lawmakers; (3) from their form, namely, when they impose proportionately equal burdens on citizens for the common good.

The welfare of the people is the highest law

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens . . . There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends and books.

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences

The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.

Choice by the people themselves is not generally distinguished for its wisdom.

The strength of government does not consist of anything within itself, but in the attachment of a nation, and the interest which a people feel in supporting it.

The right of war and peace is in the nation. where else should it reside but in those who are to pay the expense?

The government of a free country, properly speaking, is not in the persons, but in the laws.

And a government which cannot preserve the peace is no government at all, and in that case we pay our money for nothing;

The crime of taxation is not in the taking of it, it's in the way that it's spent.

The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead.