A constitution defines and limits the powers of the government it creates. It therefore follows, as a natural and also a logical result, that the governmental exercise of any power not authorized by the constitution is an assumed power, and therefore illegal.

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When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to [profess] things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

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Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

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Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.

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It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.

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To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.

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Christianity is the strangest religion ever set up, for it committed a murder upon Jesus in order to redeem mankind from the sin of eating an apple.

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No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.

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The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.

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To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

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