It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

When the people rule, they must be rendered happy, or they will overturn the state.

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.

The civil jury is the most effective form of sovereignty of the people. It defies the aggressions of time and man. During the reigns of Henry VIII (1509-1547) and Elizabeth I (1158-1603), the civil jury did in reality save the liberties of England.

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

Despotism may be able to do without religion, but democracy cannot.

He [Napoleon] was as great as a man can be without morality.