Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.

In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

Democratic institutions generally give men a lofty notion of their country and themselves.

However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit.

The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

Despotism can do without faith but freedom cannot.