The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.

The more alike men are, the weaker each feels in the face of all.

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.

The territorial aristocracy of former ages was either bound by law, or thought itself bound by usage, to come to the relief of its serving-men and to relieve their distresses. But the manufacturing aristocracy of our age first impoverishes and debases the men who serve it and then abandons them to be supported by the charity of the public.

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.

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

The foremost or indeed sole condition required in order to succeed in centralizing the supreme power in a democratic community is to love equality or to get men to believe you love it. Thus, the science of despotism, which was once so complex, has been simplified and reduced, as it were, to a single principle.