We can never, even by the strictest examination, get completely behind the secret springs of action.

Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty.

The bad thing of war is, that it makes more evil people than it can take away.

There is no virtue in penance and fasting which waste the body; they are only fanatical and monkish.

The science of mathematics presents the most brilliant example of how pure reason may successfully enlarge its domain without the aid of experience

[A ruler is merely] the trustee of the rights of other men and he must always stand in dread of having in some way violated these rights.

The existence of the Bible, as a book for the people, is the greatest benefit which the human race has ever experienced. Every attempt to belittle it is a crime against humanity.