Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.

There is no escape - we pay for the violence of our ancestors.

To suspect your own mortality is to know the beginning of terror, to learn irrefutably that you are mortal is to know the end of terror.

Beaurocracy destroys initiative.

Can you collect chaos? Not collecting, that is the ultimate gathering. What can you gather without gathering yourself.

Caution is the path to mediocrity.

Governments can be useful to the governed only so long as inherent tendencies toward tyranny are restrained.