In proportion as the people are accustomed to manage their affairs by their own active intervention, instead of leaving them to the government, their desires will turn to repelling tyranny, rather than to tyrannizing: while in proportion as all ready initiative and direction resides in the government, and individuals habitually feel and act as under its perpetual tutelage, popular institutions develop in them not the desire of freedom, but an unmeasured appetite for place and power.

Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority; but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow.

The best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear from thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward.

The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power.

All that makes existence valuable to any one depends on the enforcement of restraints upon the actions of other people.

Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters.

Almost all rich veins of original and striking speculation have been opened by systematic half-thinkers.