“I grew up in one of the most socially conservative neighborhoods in Ohio, and my parents were traditional Catholics. But in her old age, my mother got her home health care from a guy who was gay, who was wonderful to her. Before she died, she rode a float in the Cincinnati Gay Pride Parade.”
Quote by Gail Collins
“It is a just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good. This often applies to their very errors. But their good sense would despise the adulator who should pretend they always reason right about the means of promoting it.”
Source: The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers
“In America, no other distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionaire, and generally on a more favored one whenever their rights seem to jar.”
Source: Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness
“[The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government.”
“The ultimate arbiter is the people of the Union.”
Source: Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson
“But cool and candid people will at once reflect, that the purest of human blessings must have a portion of alloy in them, that the choice must always be made, if not of the lesser evil, at least of the GREATER, not the PERFECT good; and that in every political institution, a power to advance the public happiness, involves a discretion which may be misapplied and abused.”
Source: The Fœderalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favor of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Fœderal Convention, September 17, 1787. Reprinted from the Original Text. With an Historical Introduction and Notes
“It is very difficult to reconcile the American ideal of a sovereign people capable of owning and managing their own government with an inability to own and manage their own business.”
“I am for economy. After that I am for more economy. At this time and under present conditions that is my conception of serving all the people.”
“These considerations and many others that might be mentioned prove, and experience confirms it, that artisans and manufacturers will commonly be disposed to bestow their votes on merchants.”
Source: The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in 1788
“[W]e must extend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens - the only proper objects of government.”
Source: The Federalist, on the new constitution, written in 1788, with an appendix, containing the letters of Pacificus and Helvidius on the proclamation of neutrality of 1793, also the original articles of confederation and the constitution of the United States
“It is just observation that the people commonly intend the Public Good.”
Source: The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution