Governments, whatever their pretensions otherwise, try to preserve themselves by holding the individual down ... Government itself, indeed, may be reasonably defined as a conspiracy against him. Its one permanent aim, whatever its form, is to hobble him sufficiently to maintain itself.

The Americans are the illegitimate children of the English.

The more a man dreams, the less he believes.

The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goose step.

Popularity--The capacity for listening sympathetically when men boast of their wives and women complain of their husbands.

The truth that survives is simply the lie that is pleasantest to believe.

The more I think you over, the more it comes home to me what an unmitigated Middle Victorian ass you are!