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.

---

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

---

Ye that dare oppose, not only tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!

---

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

---

The slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.

---

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

---

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

---

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.

---

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

---

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.

---