I have always noticed in politics how often men are ruined by having too good a memory.

There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than 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.

Every nation that has ended in tyranny has come to that end by way of good order. It certainly does not follow from this that peoples should scorn public peace, but neither should they be satisfied with that and nothing more. A nation that asks nothing of government but the maintenance of order is already a slave in the depths of its heart; it is a slave of its well-being, ready for the man who will put it in chains.

Generally speaking, only simple conceptions can grip the mind of a nation. An idea that is clear and precise even though false will always have greater power in the world than an idea that is true but complex.

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.

He [Napoleon] was as great as a man can be without morality.