“The state is the association of men, and not men themselves; the citizen may perish, and the man remain.”

It is requisite the government be so constituted as one man need not be afraid of another.

Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it; he goes on till he is pulled up by some limits. Who would say it! virtue even has need of limits.

Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality.

Slowness is frequently the cause of much greater slowness.

I suffer from the disease of writing books and being ashamed of them when they are finished.

There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines; they feel.

Wonderful maxim: not to talk of things any more after they are done.

An injustice to one is a threat made to all

The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests.

Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.

A really intelligent man feels what other men only know.

The less luxury there is in a republic, the more it is perfect.

It is rare to find learned men who are clean, do not stink and have a sense of humour.

I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.

Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

I like peasants-they are not sophisticated enough to reason speciously.

I hate tooting my own horn, but after Steven Spielberg saw Yentl, he said: “I wish I could tell you how to fix your picture, but I can’t. It’s the best film I’ve seen since Citizen Kane”.

For every citizen that was robbed, I had failed.

Today, the Iraqi citizen sees that America is coming and wants to occupy his country and kill him, and he is willing to experience for himself what happened in Palestine.

Each citizen contributes to the revenues of the State a portion of his property in order that his tenure of the rest may be secure.

The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.

Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.

The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfil the obligations of the state, which owes to every citizen a certain subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not incompatible with health.

An enlightened citizen is an indispensable ingredient of the infrastructure of democracy.