I am not aware that any community has a right to force another to be civilized.

It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.

The idea is essentially repulsive, of a society held together only by the relations and feelings arising out of pecuniary interest.

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

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.

When the people are too much attached to savage independence, to be tolerant of the amount of power to which it is for their good that they should be subject, the state of society is not yet ripe for representative government.

A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them.