The French under the old monarchy held it for a maxim that the king could do no wrong . The Americans entertain the same opinion with respect to the majority.... If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the omnipotence of the majority.

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.

Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.

Religion, which never intervenes directly in the government of American society, should therefore be considered as the first of their political institutions

In democracies, nothing is more great or more brilliant than commerce: it attracts the attention of the public, and fills the imagination of the multitude; all energetic passions are directed towards it.

Because Roman civilization perished through barbarian invasions, we are perhaps too much inclined to think that that is the only way a civilization can die. If the lights that guide us ever go out, they will fade little by little, as if of their own accord.... We therefore should not console ourselves by thinking that the barbarians are still a long way off. Some peoples may let the torch be snatched from their hands, but others stamp it out themselves.

Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.