It is certain that despotism ruins individuals by preventing them from producing wealth much more than by depriving them of what they have already produced; it dries up the source of riches, while it usually respects acquired property. Freedom, on the contrary, produces far more goods than it destroys; and the nations which are favored by free institutions invariably find that their resources increase even more rapidly than their taxes.

I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

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

By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs than their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the rust of society.

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

The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal, but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness.