Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.

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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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I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.

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He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

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The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

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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 person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

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The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.

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Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.

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