I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men's hearts or where stronger scorn is expressed for the theory of permanent equality of property

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.

I avow that I do not hold that complete and instantaneous love for the freedom of the press that one accords to things whose nature is unqualifiedly good. I love it out of consideration for the evils it prevents much more than for the good it does.

The will of the nation is one of those phrases most widely abused by schemers and tyrants of all ages.

The most durable monument of human labor is that which recalls the wretchedness and nothingness of man.

The evil which one suffers patiently as inevitable seems insupportable as soon as he conceives the idea of escaping from it.

I am unaware of his plans but I shall never stop believing in them because I cannot fathom them and I prefer to mistrust my own intellectual capacities than his justice.