A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it. – William Penn (1644-1718), Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
– James Madison (1751-1836)

No free people can lose their liberties while they are jealous of liberty. But the liberties of the freest people are in danger when they set up symbols of liberty as fetishes, worshipping the symbol instead of the principle it represents.
– Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), in Liberty and the Great Libertarians (C. Spradling)


There is nothing new in the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.
– Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Arizona v. Hicks, 3/3/87

No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than any [constitutional] provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government.
– Roger B. Taney (1777-1864), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ex parte Milligan, 1866