Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.

The passion for power over others can never cease to threaten mankind, and is always sure of finding new and unforseen allies in continuing its martyrology.

There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.

The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.

Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

The will of the people cannot make just that which is unjust.