“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.”

If I were asked to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.

The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.

Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.

This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.

The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.

The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.

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.

Authority doesn’t work without prestige, or prestige without distance.

It is not the part of prudence to neglect that which antiquity in its long experience has approved and which is also taught by apostolic authority.

No human law can abolish the natural and original right of marriage, nor in any way limit the chief and principal purpose of marriage ordained by God’s authority from the beginning: “Increase and multiply.

Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.

I grew up to always respect authority and respect those in charge.

You are your own highest authority. Do not place your source of authority outside of you. Go within to see if the truth you’ve found is in harmony with the truth you find in your heart.

Remember: you are the only person who thinks in your mind! You are the power and authority in your world.

Mockery of religion is one of the most essential things… one of the beginnings of human emancipation is the ability to laugh at authority.