Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.
Be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others; have no favourites.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
No public character has ever stood the revelation of private utterance and correspondence.
Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority...
Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.
Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.
We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.
A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom
Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.
Liberty is not the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought.
Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.
Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.
Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.
Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.
Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.
Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.
From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.
At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities.
Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.
A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.
Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country.
There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.
I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.
The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.
Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.
If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.
Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.
The few have not strength to achieve great changes unaided; the many have not wisdom to be moved by truth unmixed.
I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.
History is not only a particular branch of knowledge, but a particular mode and method of knowledge in other branches.
If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh.
Monarchy hardens into despotism. Aristocracy contracts into oligarchy. Democracy expands into the supremacy of numbers.
Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.
A liberal is only a bundle of prejudices until he has mastered, has understood, experienced the philosophy of Conservatism.
The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.
The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.
Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property.
The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.
A government does not desire its powers to be strictly defined, but the subjects require the line to be drawn with increasing precision.
Liberty has not only enemies which it conquers, but perfidious friends, who rob the fruits of its victories: Absolute democracy, socialism.
The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion.
It is very easy to speak words of wisdom from a comfortable distance, when one sees no reality, no details, none of the effect on men's minds.
Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.
A history that should pursue all the subtle threads from end to end might be eminently valuable, but not as a tribute to peace and conciliation.
Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing