If the past has been an obstacle and a burden, knowledge of the past is the safest and the surest emancipation.

The mills of God grind slowly.

Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.

Government by idea tends to take in everything, to make the whole of society obedient to the idea. Spaces not so governed are unconquered, beyond the border, unconverted, a future danger.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. It is not for the sake of a good public administration that it is required, but for the security in the pursuit of the highest objects of civil society, and of private life.

There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people.

The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.