“One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.”

As the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.

Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

The most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its ways. Only consummate statecraft can enable a king to save his throne when, after a long spell of oppression, he sets out to improve the lot of his subjects.

As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.

There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.

Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.

Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: “Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I.”

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

I have seen Americans making great and sincere sacrifices for the key common good and a hundred times I have noticed that, when needs be, they almost always gave each other faithful support.

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.

America is great because she is good.

We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man’s support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.

Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.

Light is much more than the absence of darkness. And you, my love, are much more than the absence of him.

Life without smoking is like the smoke without the roast.

In the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They will assume you don’t care about them or don’t like them.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.

When we experience the power of the Self, there is an absence of fear, there is no compulsion to control, and no struggle for approval or external power.

Darkness is merely the absence of light, and fear is merely the absence of love. If we want to be rid of fear, we cannot fight it but must replace it with love.

The purity of man is the absence of something, the purity of Jesus is the presence of something.