A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat delivers them to destruction and their triumph to despotism.

To get the inestimable good that freedom of the press assures one must know how to submit to the inevitable evil it gives rise to.

The taste for well-being is the prominent and indelible feature of democratic times.

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.

It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.

When, after having examined in detail the organization of the Supreme Court, one comes to consider in sum the prerogatives that have been given it, one discovers without difficulty that a more immense judicial power has never been constituted in any people.

Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?