Under the pressure of fanaticism, and with the mob complacently applauding the show, democratic law tends more and more to be grounded upon the maxim that every citizen is, by nature, a traitor, a libertine, and a scoundrel. In order to dissuade him from his evil-doing the police power is extended until it surpasses anything ever heard of in the oriental monarchies of antiquity.

Men always try to make virtues of their weaknesses. Fear of death and fear of life both become piety.

The ideal way to get rid of any infectious disease would be to shoot instantly every person who comes down with it.

The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.

Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again.

Of all the human qualities, the one I admire the most is competence. A tailor who is really able to cut and fit a coat seems to me an admirable man, and by the same token a university professor who knows little or nothing of the thing he presumes to teach seems to me to be a fraud and a rascal.

The only way to success in American public life lies in flattering and kowtowing to the mob