There is nothing in the world more stubborn than a corpse: you can hit it, you can knock it to pieces, but you cannot convince it.

The people is always expressive of the truth. The life of a people cannot be a lie.

Every man who has lived for fifty years has buried a whole world or even two; he has grown used to its disappearance and accustomed to the new scenery of another act: but suddenly the names and faces of a time long dead appear more and more often on his way, calling up series of shades and pictures kept somewhere, "just in case," in the endless catacombs of the memory, making him smile or sigh, and sometimes almost weep.

One must open men's eyes, not tear them out.

Liberalism, austere in political trifles, has learned ever more artfully to unite a constant protest against the government with a constant submission to it.

The liberty of the individual is the greatest thing of all, it is on this and this alone that the true will of the people can develop.

Human development is a form of chronological unfairness, since late-comers are able to profit by the labors of their predecessors without paying the same price.