A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

At the head of any new undertaking where in France you would find the government, or in England some great lord, in the United States you are sure to find an association.

Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.

There is hardly a congressman prepared to go home until he has at least one speech printed and sent to his constituents, and he won't let anybody interrupt his harangue until he has made all his useful suggestions about the 24 states of the Union, and especially the district he represents.

Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners.

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.