It is indeed difficult to imagine how men who have entirely renounced the habit of managing their own affairs could be successful in choosing those who ought to lead them. It is impossible to believe that a liberal, energetic, and wise government can ever emerge from the ballots of a nation of servants.

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

Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.

When the reality of power has been surrendered, it's playing a dangerous game to seek to retain the appearance of it; the external aspect of vigor can sometimes support a debilitated body, but most often it manages to deal it the final blow.

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

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 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.