In this age, the man who dares to think for himself and to act independently does a service to his race.

So true is that unnatural generally means only uncustomary, and that everything which is usual appears natural.

The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that it produces pleasure; but what proof is it possible to give that pleasure is good? If, then, it is asserted that there is a comprehensive formula, including all things which are in themselves good, and that whatever else is good, is not so as an end, but as a mean, the formula may be accepted or rejected, but is not a subject of what is commonly understood by proof.

Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement.

The great creative individual . . . is capable of more wisdom and virtue than collective man ever can be.

A government with all this mass of favours to give or to withhold, however free in name, wields a power of bribery scarcely surpassed by an avowed autocracy, rendering it master of the elections in almost any circumstances but those of rare and extraordinary public excitement.

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.