“Great men are never sufficiently shown but in struggles.”

When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

An event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak, and impossible to be silent.

People must be taken as they are, and we should never try make them or ourselves better by quarreling with them.

In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind.

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.

A great empire and little minds go ill together.

The grave is a common treasury, to which we must all be taken.

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.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Good order is the foundation of all things.

Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe.

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

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

I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that pitch of presumption, to consider his country as nothing but carte blanche, upon which he may scribble whatever he pleases.

The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.

After attacking the sacred majesty of Kings, I shall scarcely excite surprise by adding my firm persuasion that every profession, in which great subordination of rank constitutes its power, is highly injurious to morality.

I feel I have lived my whole life, day to day, without planning anything and I like it that way. Things change so fast, one minute you are here, the next minute you are on a plane, it’s great fun.

Either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the world is not yet anywhere near to being fully civilized.

Great leaders create more leaders, not followers.

I have sighed when obliged to confess that either Nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization which has hitherto taken place in the world has been very partial.

Innocence is a splendid thing, only it has the misfortune not to keep very well and to be easily misled.

I know that everything essential and great originated from the fact that the human being had a homeland and was rooted in tradition.