“Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime, from the sowing of the seed at Athens, 2,460 years ago, until the ripened harvest was gathered by men of our race”

Judge talent at its best and character at its worst.

Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.

The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.

Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.

Official truth is not actual truth.

Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.

I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom

Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.

Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.

It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.

A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.

Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority…

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.

From the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.

I actually had less time and the exact same budget on Hairspray, which was few years ago and this is a much bigger movie [then Rock of Ages]. That’s the way studios do it now.

If someone had been asked twenty years ago what direction they thought music was going in, they wouldn’t have said sampling.

Fifteen years ago I killed my sister.

Five years ago, who would have thought this possible?

Ronald Reagan perfected the subtler version long ago by talking about “welfare mothers” – a code phrase for people of colour.

Twenty years ago I wanted to move to a nice place so our Charley would grow up a nice boy and learn a profession. But instead we live in a jungle, so he can only be a wild animal.

A holiday is when you celebrate something that’s all finished up, that happened a long time ago and now there’s nothing left to celebrate but the dead.

Am I in love? Absolutely. I’m in love with ancient philosophers, foreign painters, classic authors, and musicians who have died long ago. I’m a passionate lover.