The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.

Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

A man must generally get away some hundreds or thousands of miles from home before he can be said to begin his travels. Why not begin his travels at home? Would he have to go far or look very closely to discover novelties? The traveler who, in this sense, pursues his travels at home, has the advantage at any rate of a long residence in the country to make his observations correct and profitable. Now the American goes to England, while the Englishman comes to America, in order to describe the country.

What we call wildness is a civilization other than our own.

I desire that there be as many different persons in the world as possible; I would have each one be very careful to find out and preserve his own way.

Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.