“If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier that other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are. you are comparing your lot with an ideal which is of course better and therefore you feel worse”

Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression.

…when the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

In a republic there is no coercive force as in other governments, the laws must therefore endeavor to supply this defect.

What cowardice it is to be dismayed by the happiness of others and devastated by there good fortune.

In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.

There is hardly any grief that an hour’s reading will not dissipate.

There are countries where a man is worth nothing; there are others where he is worth less than nothing.

An injustice committed against anyone is a threat to everyone.

Virtue in a republic is the love of one’s country, that is the love of equality.

There is still another inconvenieney in conquests made by democracies; their government is ever odious to the conquered states. It is apparently monarchical, but in reality it is more oppressive than monarchy, as the experience of all ages and countries evinces.

Solemnity is the shield of idiots

Great commanders write their actions with simplicity; because they receive more glory from facts than from words.

Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.

The English are busy; they don’t have time to be polite.

Each particular society begins to feel its strength, whence arises a state of war between different nations.