Aristocracy: A combination of many powerful men, for the purpose of maintaining their own particular interests. It is consequently a concentration of all the most effective parts of a community for a given end, hence its energy, efficiency and success.

Liberty is not a matter of words, but a positive and important condition of society. Its greatest safeguard after placing its foundations on a popular base, is in the checks and balances imposed on the public servants.

The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.

The disposition of all power is to abuses, nor does it at all mend the matter that its possessors are a majority.

Battles, unlike bargains, are rarely discussed in society.

Hope is the most treacherous of all human fancies.