“Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.”

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.

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern … Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.

The principle of the Inquisition was murderous. . . . The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition of salvation.

We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.

To develop and perfect and arm conscience is the great achievement of history.

When you perceive a truth, look for the balancing truth.

Ink was not invented to express our real feelings.

Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes.

There should be a law to the People besides its own will.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.