“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.”

Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.

Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.

Those which we call necessary institutions are simply no more than institutions to which we have become accustomed.

Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.

I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.

In the principle of equality I very clearly discern two tendencies; one leading the mind of every man to untried thoughts, the other prohibiting him from thinking at all.

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.

Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.

Slavery…dishonors labor. It introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind and benumbs the activity of man.

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

Socialism is a new form of slavery.

If ever America undergoes great revolutions, they will be brought about by the presence of the black race on the soil of the United States – that is to say, they will owe their origin not to the equality but to the inequality of conditions.

Rulers who destroy men’s freedom commonly begin by trying to retain its forms. … They cherish the illusion that they can combine the prerogatives of absolute power with the moral authority that comes from popular assent.

In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.

Politics isn’t only about government. Politics is about the people.

We have a political culture of intimidation, of favoring, of patronage, and of fear, and that is no way for a community to be governed.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity – the law of nature and of nations.

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world – no ideals.

The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.

To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.