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

Absolute power demoralizes.

Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.

The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority.

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.

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.