A great democratic revolution is taking place in our midst.

To get the inestimable good that freedom of the press assures one must know how to submit to the inevitable evil it gives rise to.

Nothing is quite so wretchedly corrupt as an aristocracy which has lost its power but kept its wealth and which still has endless leisure to devote to nothing but banal enjoyments. All its great thoughts and passionate energy are things of the past, and nothing but a host of petty, gnawing vices now cling to it like worms to a corpse.

Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed from it.

The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.

Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Each man is for ever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.

One of the happiest consequences of the absence of government...is the development of individual strength that inevitably follows.