Related:

• There is but one element of government, and that is THE PEOPLE.
  From this element spring all governments. "For a nation to be free, it is only necessary that she wills it....
• The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected
  their interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately, and therefore they rise and fall together....
• As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.
  -- John Adam...
• We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.
  Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net....
• It is the elected official's duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfaction to theirs -- and above all, ever and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own.
  But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgement, his enlightened conscience, he ought not sacrifice to you, to any man, or any set of men living....
• Free people, remember this maxim: We may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.
  -- Rousseau...
• Power must never be trusted without a check. -- John Adam
• When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
  -- Thomas Jefferso...
• When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.
  Thomas Jefferson [letter,1807]...